It’s now a few weeks since Facebook introduced updates to their API and its corresponding features, that prevents us from displaying the Facebook stream for our customers in the OX App Suite portal.
Many of you have been asking for clarification of why this is has happened, so it’s time we set the record straight again.
The issue, put simply, is that we now need an additional + new API permission from Facebook called ‘read_stream’ to display Facebook posts in OX App Suite.
Sounds quite straightforward, doesn’t it? The problem is that Facebook is really using “read_stream “ for its own silo’d purposes – i.e. to keep control of the information it knows about you and your connections.
Of course, Facebook will tell us that the migration towards the new Graph API and the silos and barriers within it is as all about improvement for users´ data sovereignty.
Forgive me, but that’s complete nonsense. The reality is that Facebook and others like LinkedIn are closing and controlling access to more areas in their APIs for one reason only: to extract maximum profit from our data, which they want exclusively. That’s their business model, and they’re not going to change it for anyone.
So I find it very cynical that Facebook is covering itself by telling us all – as customers – that they’re simply tightening up on privacy for our benefit.
Sorry Mr Zuckerberg, but that argument simply doesn’t hold water. After all, who do you think owns the data that we produce and submit about ourselves in the internet – us, or you? I’m afraid most of us know the answer without even having to ask.
Here’ s another pretty important question: with the way things are going with APIs and the way they’re being used for self-serving corporate aims, are we ever going to get the open and free Internet we deserve?
Unless something changes soon, I fear not. As we wrote back in March, it’s very worrying for the future of the Internet if these private APIs become more prevalent than their open counterparts.
Open APIs are essential fuel for innovation on the Internet. Closed or silo’d APIs, on the other hand, are holding our data to ransom – they take it of our hands, put it in the control of people we shouldn’t trust, and we’re only ever going to any control back for some kind of price (you can be sure Facebook, LinkedIn and the rest will see to that).