Facebook vs. Data Portability: Who Owns an Individual’s Data? Supreme Court asked to Decide

A defiant act of civil disobedience against Facebook by Power Ventures CEO, Steven Vachani, on behalf of millions of his users, led to an Eight-Year court battle to let Facebook users, and

their authorized 3rd party services, have unobstructed ownership and portability of their Personal Data. Vachani seeks to empower billions of Internet users with the same portability rights that mobile phone users around the world have already won with their phone numbers

Washington - March 14, 2017 - Power Ventures, an online data portability pioneer who operated a once popular social media platform, Power.com, which gave users unobstructed ownership, control, and portability of their online data everywhere, has taken its eight-year-old legal battle with Facebook over the issue of data portability (i.e., who owns an individual's data) to the US Supreme Court. Power’s opening arguments and petition to the Supreme Court were made public today. https://www.slideshare.net/vachani1/power-ventures-inc-and-steven-vachani-vs-facebook-supreme-court-petition-for-writ-of-certiorari)

Power currently has the support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and is currently seeking and expects a wide spectrum of additional civil liberties, human rights, and constitutional rights groups to join its Supreme Court battles and weigh in its favor stating in its petition that ‘Data portability is a burgeoning policy concern of our time, as underscored by a recent report issued by the European Commission’s Directorate General Justice and Consumers. (See Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, Guidelines on the Right to Data Portability (Dec. 13, 2016), available at http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/image/document/2016-51/wp242_en_40852.pdf Power Ventures CEO, Steven Vachani, is at the center of the dispute stemming from his former web platform Power.com, which empowered Internet users to access multiple online social networks (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter), messaging services (e.g., Yahoo, Microsoft messengers), and email accounts (e.g., Google mail) through a single, integrated online interface consisting of a digital dashboard and browser.

Vachani described Power’s popular data portability feature that was used by over 20 million Power users at its peak: “Imagine you wanted move or copy one thousand photos and photo descriptions from Facebook to another social network like Google Plus or to a cloud storage account such as Dropbox. Just to move one photo, it would take nearly 10 individual steps to

click, download, save each photo on your desktop or phone and then go to your other site and recreate each photo folder, upload photos to each folder, and then rewrite descriptions for each photo. That might take weeks of your time and 10,000 manual steps. Just like you use a mover in the real world to transport your possessions between your homes, Power was a sort of ‘digital mover.’ Power allowed our users to move, synchronize, or copy all their online data (photos, contacts, files, messages, etc) freely between all their different accounts with a simple one-step drag and drop functionality just like users already do when they drag and drop folders and files freely on their personal computer AppleOS or Microsoft Windows desktop.”

After an extended battle in the Northern California district courts from 2008-2013, this case went to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the second most powerful court in the land, where the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also weighed in support of Power. (https://www.eff.org/document/facebook-v-power-ventures-eff-aclu-amicus-brief) The 9th circuit reversed prior claims by Facebook that Power violated the CAN SPAM Act and the CFAA by accessing Facebook without authorization and ruled that Power did indeed have authorization to access user’s data because it was given to Power by users themselves. At the same time, the court also ruled against Power stating that its initial authorization by users was then revoked after Facebook asked Power to leave.

In a modern day act of civil disobedience against Facebook’s violation of individual user’s rights to freely move their own data and online property, Vachani and Power, stood their ground in support of its users and defied Facebook’s request for Power to stop assisting millions of Power users to to freely access, control, and move their own photos, contacts, and messages from Facebook to their other accounts. “Today, the internet is at the foundation of every aspect of our lives. It is time for digital human rights to be treated with the same level of gravity as other human and civil rights violations, said Vachani.

Vachani continued, “Imagine if the 9th circuit court had said that your landlord was legally authorized to restrict you from using boxes, movers, and a moving truck to help you pack, ship, and transport your personal belongings outside of your current home to a new home. This would force you against your will to either not move at all or to abandon your personal possessions. This is exactly what the 9th Circuit ruled in regards to an individual’s rights to freely move their online data and property. Now, any social network or cloud storage site can lock your data inside their site against your will and sites like Facebook can continue to obstruct and make it very difficult for you to move your data. If you or your digital mover (i.e. Power.com) try to help you move your data, you could both face criminal penalties.”

Orin Kerr, a respected law professor and digital trespassing and CFAA expert (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/07/12/9th-circuit-its-a-federal-crime-to-visit-a-website-after-being-told-not-to-visit-it/), is concerned that this case is a "powder keg of issues." In the Wild West of cyber law, it's not clear what it means to trespass. As the court decision stands now, Kerr says, it gives private companies the power to limit what sites you can visit, and "it might give the government power to arrest you for something you do every day: violate terms of service."

For more background information on the Facebook v. Power Ventures case, please visit these referenced links:

(Power and Vachani Supreme Court Petition - Petition for Writ of Certiori https://www.slideshare.net/vachani1/power-ventures-inc-and-steven-vachani-vs-facebook-supreme-court-petition-for-writ-of-certiorari)

The Man Who Stood up to Facebook by Aarti Shahani - NPR-All things Considered http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/10/13/497820170/the-man-who-stood-up-to-facebook

Electronic Frontier Foundation and ACLU Amicus Brief - 9th Circuit En Banc https://www.eff.org/document/facebook-v-power-ventures-eff-aclu-amicus-brief

Summary of Previous Electronic Frontier Foundation Briefs throughout the case https://www.eff.org/cases/facebook-v-power-ventures

9th Circuit-“It’s a federal crime to visit a website after being told not to visit it” Orin Kerr https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/07/12/9th-circuit-its-a-federal-crime-to-visit-a-website-after-being-told-not-to-visit-it/

European Union-WP 29 Guidelines for Data Portability http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/image/document/2016-51/wp242_en_40852.pdf

“Norms of Computer Trespass” by Orin Kerr http://columbialawreview.org/content/norms-of-computer-trespass/

About Power Ventures (formerly operating as Power.com)

From 2006 to 2011, Power Ventures operated a groundbreaking online communications, personal data management, and social networking aggregator hosted at the website www.power.com. Power offered registered users the capacity to access multiple online social networks (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging services (e.g., Microsoft messenger—MSN), and email accounts (e.g., Google mail) through a single, integrated online interface consisting of a digital dashboard and browser. This online interface also featured popular add-in applications like a unified address book and mailbox integrating all of a user’s contacts, emails, social network messages, and instant messages in one place. The interface additionally enabled Power users to move files between different accounts with a click-and-drag function, like a user moves folders on an AppleOS or Microsoft Windows desktop.

Founded by CEO and global serial entrepreneur, Steven Vachani in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2006, Power Ventures was Brazil’s first global technology startup to ever to receive funding from a Tier 1 Silicon Valley VC firm. Power built the Internet’s first APP platform and CONNECT platforms in 2006 which were precursors to Facebook Connect and now widely used Apple and Google App platforms. Power attracted more than ten million dollars of investment as a startup from noted Silicon Valley venture capital firms like Draper Fisher Jurvetson (who also invested in Hotmail, Skype, and Tesla) and registered more than twenty million users at its peak