Towards Data Portability between Online Social Networks, a Conceptual Model of the Portable User Profile

Abstract

The last decade has seen an increasing number of Online Social Network (OSN) users. As they grew more and more popular over the years, OSNs become also more and more profitable. Indeed, users share a considerable amount of personal information on these sites, both intentionally and unintentionally. And thanks to this enormous user base, social networks are able to generate recommendations; attract numerous advertisers; and sell the data to companies. This situation has sparked a lot of interest in the research community. Researchers have studied, among other topics, the issues of trust and privacy. Indeed, users grow more uncomfortable with the idea that they do not have full control over their own data. This paper addresses the notion of portable profile. The authors will discuss the advantages and drawbacks of a portable profile, from the perspective of the user and of the online social network. Secondly, the authors will propose a conceptual model for the data in this unified profile.

A Study of Database Models for Social Network Analysis

“…We found [Reinhardt et al 2010] as a general network model for social networks, but it does not cover conceptual layer and current entities attributes. In [Bouraga et al 2016] the authors proposed an unified Conceptual Model to allow user profile portability between MSNs. We analyzed their model and the separation between implicit and explicit informations doesn't attend our users requirement for SNA tasks.…”