Facebook – Land grab.

Anonymous login is a land grab for user data.

• Facebook is holding its F8 developer conference this week at which the most significant announcement was anonymous login.
• This is a new feature that allows users, who use Facebook to login into third party apps and services, to control how much, if any, of their data is shared with that app. or service.
• This means that the third parties will learn nothing about users coming into their domains and using their Digital Life services if the user so choses.
• Given the recent focus on privacy and the high degree to which users elect not to be tracked through their browser, I suspect that the majority of users will chose this option.
• This is likely to have the effect if substantially increasing the use of Facebook as a login for third party apps and services.
• Google is likely to follow suit and I can see other ecosystem players like Microsoft, Yahoo! and maybe even Apple moving to emulate this feature.
• While the third party app or service will learn nothing about the user, what Facebook will learn is unclear.
• It will certainly know that the user has accessed used its login with a third party but how much it will learn about what the user does with that third party is unclear.
• In the worst case scenario, Facebook will learn about what its users are doing outside of its core social networking space and will have data to build a more complete profile on that user’s Digital Life.
• RFM research indicates that a more complete profile will lead to better pricing for advertising and therefore higher revenues without a corresponding cost increase.
• One of my key concerns regarding Facebook has been its lack of traction in any Digital Life service outside of social networking.
• If anonymous login gains real traction, then Facebook will be in a position to affect some monetisation outside of social networking albeit in a limited way.
• It would need to provide other Digital Life services itself in order to fully monetise segments outside of social networking but this is a start.
• Importantly, this will diminish the ability of third party apps and services to learn about their users and hence their ability to economically offer the app or service for “free”.
• This could result in third parties declining to allow anonymous login but it will be a delicate balance between making life easy for the user and economic viability.
• Either way it is good for Facebook and this move gives it a short lead in spreading its influence farther and wider than its core social networking offering.