Requiring ALL Platform Partners Use The API So There Is A Registered Application

I wrote a story about Twitter allowing users to check or uncheck a box regarding sharing data with select Twitter partners. While I am happy to see this move from Twitter, I feel the concept of information sharing being simply being a checkbox is unacceptable. I wanted to make sure I praised Twitter in my last post, but I’d like to expand upon what I’d like to see from Twitter, as well as ALL other platforms that I depend on in my personal and professional life.

There is no reason that EVERY platform we depend on couldn’t require ALL partners to use their API, resulting in every single application of our data be registered as an official OAuth application. The technology is out there, and there is no reason it can’t be the default mode for operations. There just hasn’t been the need amongst platform providers, as as no significant demand from platform users. Even if you don’t get full access to delete and adjust the details of the integration and partnership, I’d still like to see companies, share as many details as they possibly can regarding any partner sharing relationships that involve my data.

OAuth is not the answer to all of the problems on this front, but it is the best solution we have right now, and we need to have more talk about how we can make it is more intuitive, informative, and usable by the average end-users, as well as 3rd party developers, and platform operators. API plus OAuth is the lowest cost, widely adopted, standards based approach to establishing a pipeline for ALL data, content, and algorithms operate within that gives a platform the access and control they desire, while opening up access to 3rd party integrators and application developers, and most importantly, it gives a voice to end-users–we just need to continue discussing how we can keep amplifying this voice.

To the folks who will DM, email, and Tweet at me after this story. I know it’s unrealistic and the platforms will never do business like this, but it is a future we could work towards. I want EVERY online service that I depend on to have an API. I want all of them to provide OAuth infrastructure to govern identify and access management for personally identifiable information. I want ALL platform partners to be required to use a platforms API, and register an application for any user who they are accessing data on behalf. I want all internal platform projects to also be registered as an application in my OAuth management area. Crazy talk? Well, Google does it for (most of) their internal applications, why can’t others? Platform apps, partner apps, and 3rd party apps all side by side.

The fact that this post will be viewed as crazy talk by most who work in the technology space demonstrates the imbalance that exists. The technology exists for doing this. Doing this would improve privacy and security. The only reason we do not do it is because the platforms, their partners and ivnestors are too worried about being this observable across operations. There is no reason why APIs plus OAuth application can’t be universal across ALL platforms online, with ALL partners being required to access personally identifiable information through an API, with end-uses at least involved in the conversaiton, if not given full control over whether or not personally identifiable information is shared, or not.