Day 3 - Googles OpenSocial

A very interesting project is Googles OpenSocial API. This API is intended to allow the integration of existing social networks (like LinkedIn or Xing) into new applications or mashups without having to learn or re-engineer the various APIs of the social network application.
Quote from the OpenSocial website: "The ultimate goal is for any social website to be able to implement the API and host 3rd party social applications. There are many websites implementing OpenSocial, including Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING."

This could be easily used as a basis to retrieve data from various sources and not only get enhanced information about the single customer, but also about their relationship amongst each other and how groups are created or influenced.
A big topic will be data security and the aceptance level within the users of social networks. Will customers be willing to share personal information if they know that they will be used by companies they don't know?