Hi all,
in the last few years, many social networks appeared on the Internet. Some of them define themselves as free (as in free speech), while others don't care about their users fundamental rights.
I think it's time to sort them with a definition.
This is the reason why I tried to write down the concept of ethical social network.
I. The ethical social network
Ethical is not about price, neither about the only freedom of the source code. It is about the recognition and the respect of user freedoms:
- to recognize and respect the privacy of all communications exchanged by users, - to recognize and guarantee the same rights to every user, - to only distribute to users free software, - to allow full interoperability towards other social networks.
II. How to respect those freedoms?
First: the communication protocol
The communication protocol must be open.
Second: the software
The software specific to the social network must be under a free software licence, as its dependencies. The whole software distribution, including the server part, must be available to users.
Three: the respect of the user data privacy
Each user should use his own servers.
The communication protocol of the social network and software must let the user be able to decide freely, clearly and efficiently what to do with each of his data and his account: the user may decide for each communication who are the recipients, even possibly the general public.
Users must be warned constantly that once they publish their data, those may be known to the general public, including current or future employers and the government.
Concerning the data hosted on other servers than the user's own, the delay to delete a post or to close an account must be quick once the user requests it. The closure or the deletion must be definitive, no data must be available to the social network once it is done.
Four: the social network services
Every service available to users through the social network should not appropriate users data or track them.
What do you think about it? Any suggestions?
Judith Lukoki +33 (0)6 15 94 50 23