Some of you may be familiar with Google’s Takeout service, also called “Download Your Data.” As the name suggests, you can use this service to download all the data that Google has stored on its servers.
Taking things a step further and building on the same foundation, Google, Twitter, and Facebook have teamed up to launch the Data Transfer Project (DTP). The companies call it an “open-source, service-to-service data portability platform,” which aims to allow you to move your data from one platform to another with ease.
Essentially, this means you will be able to directly transfer data between participating online services. For example, if you want to leave Facebook and sign up for Twitter, DTP tools will help you do this by deleting your existing social presence and transferring your data to the new service.
Since this is an open source initiative (you can find the code on GitHub), the tech giants expect other participants to join the platform and enhance data portability. It will also be beneficial for users if more and more service providers join.
The participants also published a research paper that outlines that DTP will support existing standards such as REST and OAuth where possible. The paper also defines the security and privacy of user data as a fundamental principle of the data transfer project.
