Some of you might be knowing about Google’s Takeout service, also called Download Your Data. As its name suggests, you can use this service to download all your data that Google has stored on its servers.
Going one step further and building on the same base, Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Twitter have partnered and launched Data Transfer Project (DTP). The companies call it an “open-source, service-to-service data portability platform” that aims to let you move your data from one platform to the other with ease.
What it means is that you’d be able to directly transfer the data between the participating online services. For example, if you wish to leave Facebook and join Twitter, DTP tools will help you do that by erasing your existing social presence and transferring your data to the new service.
As it’s an open source initiative (here’s the GitHub Code), the tech giants expect other participants to join the platform and enhance data portability. It’ll also be beneficial for users if more and more service providers agree.
The participants have also published a research paper which describes that DTP will support existing standards like REST and OAuth where possible to minimize the fundamental work. The paper also calls the security and privacy of user data a foundational principle of Data Transfer Project.
Also Read:Â Amazon, Reddit And Others Fail To Warn Us About Dumb Passwords
