May 8th, 2008
How Dopplr teaches us about owning our identity data
by Joshua Porter | 
5 Comments
Most folks don’t think twice about the interfaces they use. They use software to get stuff done, to do work, rarely stopping to consider how that interface is dictating their behavior.
Interfaces are, by their very nature, both enabling and confining at the same time. While they allow us to do some interesting thing, they completely dictate how we must do it. They constrain our behavior, defining a rigid set of allowable actions that we must abide by. If an action isn’t available in an interface, then for all intents and purposes you can’t do it. When an interface designer creates an interface, they are not merely adding features, they are drafting the laws of the land.
Over time, we accept the dictates of our interfaces. We come to align our expectations with the interfaces we use. This was the power of Windows for many years. So many people started using computers that happened to be running the Windows operating system that they never considered there were alternatives. Windows was computing.
Similarly, web-based interfaces have taught us a bad lesson: that we don’t own our identity data. We upload information to a web site and forever forward are confined by the hidden privacy policies that we never read in the first place. Because software wasn’t providing features to get that information back out again, we never thought to ask for it. We assumed, slowly but surely, that this was the way web-based software was supposed to work.
Thankfully, this is changing. Consider this wonderful feature on Dopplr, a site to manage your trips. When you choose to close your account, Dopplr exports all of your data and sends it to you via email, by default. Without you asking. And Everything.
Now, most software doesn’t look after us like this. Most software teaches us that in order to keep our data, we must keep using the service. It’s not even polite about it.
But when Dopplr reframes our world with such a simple feature as this, people notice. Here’s the reaction of someone who was pleasantly surprised to get a data-filled email after they closed down their account:
“(Dopplr) clearly get that the owner of the data isn’t them, it’s me and that I shouldn’t have to jump through any hoops to take my data with me after I’m finished using their site. This sort of attention to detail and user friendliness in something as normally mundane as closing an account is exactly the kind of thing that makes me remember them and want to return to their service”
Kudos to Dopplr for teaching their users what is possible with the data they own.
I frequently think about this problem - what do I do with all that data I’ve put out there? How do I make sure it’s the same on every site? How can I have a copy for myself? After all it’s MY data! And what if I forgot about a site I had created an account on and uploaded information to - maybe I will never find that data again.
I really like this feature on Dopplr and hope more sites will start allowing users to download their data. As a UI Designer, you’ve got me thinking how I can incorporate this kind of thing in my product. Right now we allow people download or export some of their data, but not all of it. So it’s something to think about doing.
Very nice. Some extremely clever people are behind Dopplr, although I doubt they let you have your session history data as well (dates/time on site, referring URL, search history, login/out times etc.). Not only would that be a rather huge download, hardly anyone would know what to do with it. This also applies to other kinds of data in fact (I suppose you might be able to load Dopplr trip data into a calendar app or something though), but I know that’s not the point of your point.
That’s a very good point; I honestly have no idea what’s happened to the data associated with the dozens of accounts I must have signed up for over the years (most of which, of course, are now deleted or defunct). How do you think ordinary users could encourage other services to adopt Dopplr’s approach?
[...] How Dopplr teaches us about owning our identity data - Own Your Identity Kevin: A good write up on identity, privacy and Dopplr, a social network based on travel built by friends of ours. Dopplr treats your data as your data, not just theirs. (tags: data dopplr identity privacy) Twittering awaykevglobal: @jasonbrush I think in Austin terms that must be 'salt lick' as in margarita, not salt lick as in thing for deer/cattle. But bad branding.kevglobal: @charlesarthur Last week, I had to check my e-mail via webmail and send via Gmail due to quota and Stone Age Blackberry that doesn't wor …kevglobal: @BhamPostJoanna Or MoJo JoJo, bent on world domination? http://is.gd/k9akevglobal: @jeffjarvis Managing creativity sounds like editing blogs. (Irony noted.)kevglobal: @Suw @jeffjarvis Yes, 'Brains for Sale' sounds like an organ trading scheme. Might pique interest from the wrong circles. Also, reminds … Search for: [...]
[...] How Dopplr teaches us about owning our identity data - Own Your Identity Biggup the Dopplr massive. Lessons in proper data management. (tags: dopplr data identity privacy) [...]