Have you ever been wondering why Facebook has your memories and why you don't have them?
I had this urge last Friday CET 4:40 PM to try to get my own data from different digital services that handle it. As an EU citizen, this is my right according to the Art. 20 GDPR "Right to data portability".
Why is this important:
Startups, but even unicorns tend to go bankrupt from time to time and the users don’t get to choose the way they say goodbye to their data, meaning that whatever you have aggregated during the months and years of using a service, might disappear as quickly as a MySpace backup.
The legal and technical challenge of data portability is widely unresolved, as the idea of the user leveraging their own data on different competing platforms does not seem to be a main concern for legislators who are definitely not influenced by underpaid FAANG lobbyists.
The commoditization of the data ecosystem increases the possibility of creating data products, but it requires a governance for accessing accessing user data at least on a private and personal level.
I'm summarizing my experience as it might be useful to you also these days when some companies just fold like blam — think travel, mobility or any fluffed up unicorn. It’s about getting back what is legally yours, not necessarily about what you’re going to do with it.
Amazon a pretty new development, you have to confirm it in an e-mail, took 8 days. They provided 61 separate ZIP files one has to download one by one.
Facebook All of my data - JSON - High - Create File
LinkedIn Download larger data archive - Request archive
Twitter Twitter data download (No other download request is possible for 30 days. Like what.)
Deezer One has to file a ticket.
Mixcloud You can't.
Netflix You have to confirm in an e-mail.
SoundCloud One has to file a ticket.
Spotify Download your data You have to confirm in an e-mail.
Foursquare Export My Data
Yelp Download a copy of your Yelp data
Github Start export
If you don't find a product or service in the list below I kindly ask you to reach out to me and share your findings and experiences. Typically, the download mechanism can be found under settings and privacy. In 100% of cases, it must be triggered manually. On average you will get feedback within some workdays. In 100% of the cases, it is only a manually downloadable, expiring compressed file.