Passage Three 

Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage. 

Since the beginning of the Internet era，it has been widely accepted that when you join an online company，whatever data you put into it belongs to you. 

That means you can sign up for one kind of email，import your contacts into that system，and if you later decide to switch to some other email service，you can export all your contacts from the first service into the new one.You can use Microsoft’s Hotmail，then move to Yahoo Mail，then to Google’s Gmail.Or you can have accounts on three services and keep all your contacts in each one. 

That’ the way things were — until Facebook appeared. Facebook took a different approach Until recently, everything you put into Facebook could not be exported anywhere. In effect, you didn’t own your data. Facebook did. 

Of course this is rubbish.The reality is that Facebook wants to make it difficult，if not impossible，for you to leave. 

Now that policy has sparked a fight between Google and Facebook.Google is angry because its users can，and often do，export their Gmail contact information into Facebook.But those people can’t bring Facebook information back into Gmail. 

Earlier this month Google declared it would block exports of its data to Facebook.In a shameless move，Facebook broke through Google’s roadblock so its users could keep pulling data from Google. 

Google said it was “disappointed’’ with Facebook’s behavior.It also created a warning screen to tell Gmail users that if they export their information to Facebook they won’t get it back. 

Basically，Facebook’s position with major IT companies is this：if you want access to all the information we’ve collected，strike a deal with us.Microsoft and Yahoo have done that，and now，like magic，they can export Facebook contact information into their systems，while Google still can’t. 

Remember the early days of the Net，when everything was going to be open and flee? That was great until people realized that their user data could be turned into gold.Now there are billions involved，and nobody is playing nice anymore. 

31.Before Facebook appeared，people_______.