Google Asks Users To Complain Against Facebook

dkd903 writes "A kind of war has been going on recently between Facebook and Google over a contact export issue. First, Google blocked Facebook access to the Gmail contacts API. To this, Facebook responded back with a new method to get Gmail contacts of a user (the download contacts option). And now Google has slapped back again at Facebook and asks users indirectly to file a data protectionism complaint against Facebook. When a Facebook user clicks on the Download Your Contacts button on the 'Facebook import contact via Gmail' page, the user is then redirected to a new page on Google's server, which looks something like this..." Can I just say that watching this is absolutely hysterical?

Comments

Great. I'm doing it now

[bhagwad]

Just registered a complaint. This is the right thing to do. People and corporations must be made aware that they have no right to hang on to user's personal data without giving them the choice to export it in an easy and convenient way.

Re:Great. I'm doing it now

[ach1000]

https://www.google.com/dashboard

Re:Great. I'm doing it now

[AaxelB]

So wait... how exactly can I view, let alone export, all the personal data that Google has collected on me over the years? What if I want to switch to a different search engine but don't want to lose all the behind the scenes tweaking that can be done with a good decades worth of search history?

https://www.google.com/history/

I don't know if they provide an export feature, but all the searches you made while logged in are there. I found out I've done 11307 searches! That's actually fewer than I thought... It's pretty interesting to look at what I was searching for 4 years ago.

Re:Great. I'm doing it now

[Adm.Wiggin]

Why don't you try clicking on one, then? https://www.google.com/history/lookup?st=web

Re:Suck it up Zuck.

[bhagwad]

If you want to register a complaint, here is the page where Google allows you to do so: http://www.google.com/mail/help/contacts_export_confirm.html

Re:"Looks something like this"?

[Boba001]

They should have just linked directly to Google:

http://www.google.com/mail/help/contacts_export_confirm.html

Re:Why are we getting pulled into this turf war?

[tibman]

You are correct. Now try to reverse the process... ow, not able to get your facebook stuff into Gmail? Well, now you understand why there is a battle.

Re:Size of FB is frightening

[Triv]

I bet search volume on FB is getting close to Google.com, and this is not even core business for FB.

You spend WAAAAAAAAAY too much time on Facebook if your perspective on their share of the internet search market is that narrow.

Facebook, as of February, was sitting at 700 status updates a second. Know how many google searches were made every second as of February? 34,000.

So no, not close. Not even close to close.

Re:Who's Laughing Now?

[Chapter80]

This is the first time Google has ever actually attempted to wield power.

Huh?

Net Neutrality, Spectrum Auction, Defining the mobile platform, and battling Microsoft all immediately come to mind as times that Google has attempted to wield power.

I'm sure we could come up with others if we thought about it.

Re:Suck it up Zuck.

[Nadaka]

Last I checked, you don't actually have to give facebook your login credentials for gmail or yahoo, both gmail and yahoo have an api for exporting contacts. You won't be prompted for your username/password if you are already logged into your email.

Linkedin however does ask for your username and password.

Re:Suck it up Zuck.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why adblock when you can just add them to your host file.

Re:Could this Backfire?

[angloquebecer]

How about the fact Google doesn't stop you at all? You can still click to go ahead with the gmail export. Google is trying to make all the non-Slashdot-Freedom-Fans aware that while Google lets you export your data freely, Facebook doesn't offer the same benefi.ts

Re:Suck it up Zuck

[jlarocco]

Is that a joke? There are a bunch of ad blockers for Chrome. My favorite is AdThwart. But the regular AdBlock works well also. They're at least as good, if not better, than the ad blockers available for Firefox, Opera, and Konqueror.