In the latest development, the social media tech giant has launched a tool that will enable Facebook users to transfer their photos and videos directly to other services, starting with Google Photos.
At present, this feature will be available to Facebook users in Ireland, where its international headquarters are located. As per the company claims, this porting tool service came after discussions with officials in countries including Brazil, Britain, Germany, and Singapore.
Worldwide availability in the first half of 2020!
Notably, the company is testing the feature based on feedback and will be available worldwide in Q1 or Q2 of 2020. Reportedly, porting to other photo storage services, in addition to the Google Photos, will be supported in the future as well.
People can access this new tool in Facebook settings within Your Facebook Information, the same place where you can download your information. Data transferred through the tool will be encrypted and will require users to re-enter their passwords,
Based on the Data Transfer Project!
As per the company claims, the photo transfer tool is based on code developed through participation in the open-source Data Transfer Project, a collaborative effort started by biggies, including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter. Notably, the project is focused on building a common framework through which data can be transferred with ease.
Released white paper in September!
Furthermore, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook released a white paper on the topic back in September, exploring the privacy questions. It also explained the precise rules, the kind of data that can be transferred, and who is responsible for protecting that data as it moves to different providers.
Faces privacy and antitrust violations!
This new feature comes as the social media tech giant faces multiple investigations from state attorney generals and federal regulators for privacy and antitrust violations in Washington and Europe.
In the blog post, Facebook stated:
We hope this product can help advance conversations on the privacy questions we identified in our white paper. We know we can’t do this alone, so we encourage other companies to join the Data Transfer Project to expand options for people and continue to push data portability innovation forward.
Image credits: Shutterstock/Chinnapong
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