In July of last year, Facebook teamed up with other online tech giants such as Google to help customers more easily transfer their data between online services through the Data Transfer Project (DTP). As part of that initiative, Facebook today announced the rollout of a new tool that lets users move their photos and videos directly to third-party services.
The new data portability tool is available only in Ireland for now, and Facebook is kicking off the pilot phase by allowing users to transfer their media content to Google Photos from today. A global rollout is scheduled in the first half of 2020, though there's no word on what other services will be supported by the tool.
Regarding the new feature, Steve Satterfield, Director of Privacy and Public Policy, said:
"We want to build practical portability solutions people can trust and use effectively. To foster that trust, people and online services need clear rules about what kinds of data should be portable and who is responsible for protecting that data as it moves to different services. We hope this product can help advance conversations on the privacy questions we identified in our white paper."
You can access the tool (click here) in the same location within Facebook's settings where already you can download your private information. The social networking giant also says encryption is put in place to secure all data transferred. That's on top of having to enter your password before initiating the move.
The tool is still a work in progress and Facebook says it will continue to gather feedback from the people using it and its stakeholders. The new capability came two months after the company published a white paper that aimed to address issues surrounding privacy and data portability between online services.
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