Today pictures of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan are splashed across the front page of Valleywag. Nothing unusual in that, except for the fact that both Paris and Lindsay didn’t consent. These were obtained through a fairly simple hack into their MySpace profiles, via Yahoo! Notably: the hack didn’t involve any illegal passwords, just typing in URLs.
ValleyWag used this as an excuse to launch into an attack on the principles behind Data Portability as part of their coverage. We discussed it, and concluded that the model has to begin with privacy, and ensuring that privacy contracts between services are honored, before any discussion of portability.
We also talked a little about what to expect on Monday at the Apple WWDC. Aside from Steve Job’s dress, not much is known. Assuming the keynote is simulcast, we’ll move the SquawkBox until directly afterward.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
