Data Ownership

The following linked story discusses an interesting point:

Who owns your login information?

Power.com Sues Facebook: Data Ownership War Breaks Out

"Power.com, for those unfamiliar, allows you to log into all your social media accounts simultaneously via the Power.com interface. This means that you can use your MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Orkut, and Hi5 accounts all at the same time. Facebook though, is noticeably absent from the list of supported accounts due to its December lawsuit with the social networking giant. Their big objection was the storage of user credentials on Power.com, and in turn they requested that the service use a solution involving Facebook Connect instead."

Facebook Is No Friend of Power.com

Power.com countersues Facebook over user data

google news search: Power.com facebook lawsuit

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Normally, I think, a person would assume that their login information belongs to them, and that if they want to share it, they would be able to.

Not necessarily - terms of service for many services can prohibit login sharing. Your bank card PIN is login information - by the terms of agreement there you are expressly prohibited from sharing the information with anyone else. Sharing your PIN is a violation of the terms of service for use of the bank card - remember, the card also remains the property of the issuer - and could result in the revocation of services provided through the use of the card.

This court case will make new law. Watch for how it turns out.

http://www.power.com/

http://www.facebook.com/