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Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter Launch the Data Transfer Project (venturebeat.com)

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter have teamed up for a new open source project that strives to make it easier to transfer your data between online services. From a report: The Data Transfer Project (DTP) was officially founded last year, and there have been whisperings about it on the likes of GitHub, but the initiative was officially unveiled today with its first four members. The DTP is actively seeking other members too. The ultimate aim of the Data Transfer Project is to improve data portability, allowing users to not only download their data but transfer it directly to any other service.

59 comments

  1. How about a data deletion project? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How about the ability to have data deleted, with some certified E-mail saying the data is gone? For example, if I'm on Discord, and need to remove stuff, I have to run a kludgy Javascript item tons of times so it can remove entries. Why not have the ability to delete stuff, select by date, type (post, message, like, etc.) have it confirm that (perhaps prompting for a password), and actually going and removing that info.

    For example, with Facebook, something like the Chrome extension, "social book post manager" is a must.

    Most data I don't care to have moved or transferred. I want it gone, period.

    1. Re:How about a data deletion project? by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      Facebook sends you a confirmation email after your data is deleted.

      Whether you trust it or not is not an issue you brought up

    2. Re:How about a data deletion project? by datavirtue · · Score: 1

      Because their shitty nosql architecture will not support it. Try searching a document database on random shit. It is all tied to user keys.

      --
      I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
  2. oh shit son by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can not only download my own data but I can do stuff with it?
    sign me the fuck up

  3. EU Antitrust? by saibot834 · · Score: 2

    Is this to avoid antitrust rulings such as we've seen recently against Google? If so, great. Looks like the pressure was working.

    1. Re:EU Antitrust? by houghi · · Score: 1

      I doubt this will go well when looking at that other European thing: GDPR.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    2. Re:EU Antitrust? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To me, it looks like a collusion attempt to form legal counter arguments thwarting antitrust cases, while at the same time, allowing these groups to maintain their joint/shared monopoly on user data. I notice it's a data "transfer" project, I don't see anything about the deletion or even restricting usage of ones' harvested data. It's growing to the point where they all have a plethora of consumer data anyways, so at this point it's about best using the data to compete while attempting to maintaining good face of this business model to the public.

    3. Re:EU Antitrust? by smbell · · Score: 1
      I don't think GDPR is an issue here. This is just companies providing a consistent export format for existing data. I can only think of two possible GDPR issues that should be easy to deal with.
      1. 1) If they start using this format to share data without permission. Clear violation. Don't do that, you're breaking the law.
      2. 2) If somehow the format of the data forces a violation of the requirement to keep data pseudonymous. Should be easily avoidable.
    4. Re:EU Antitrust? by kubajz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Perhaps it is the other way around. GDPR Article 20 states: "The data subject shall have the right to receive the personal data concerning him or her, which he or she has provided to a controller, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from the controller to which the personal data have been provided." (emphasis mine)

    5. Re:EU Antitrust? by datavirtue · · Score: 1

      It does nothing for privacy. We will see what it really does for competition.

      --
      I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
  4. First, we just need to agree on all the standards by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

    >> "DTP Data Models represent the data when being transferred between two different companies. Ideally each company would use interoperable APIs (e.g. ActivityPub) to allow data to flow between them. However in many cases that is not the case."

    I am not making this up. See https://datatransferproject.dev/how-does-dtp-work

    >> "Ideally, a Vertical will have a small number of well-defined and widely-adopted Data Models. In such a situation, the generally accepted standard will be used as the Data Model for that Vertical across companies. This is not currently the case for most Verticals because Data Models have emerged organically in a largely disconnected ecosystem."

    No shit. Huh.

  5. Re: First, we just need to agree on all the standa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Can I delete my data, like my porn hub account data? Not that I'd have any reason to want to get rid of that, or even an account, haha.

  6. If they spend enough money on R&D... by Sloppy · · Score: 1

    If these companies really try hard, they might come up with something as good as rsync or scp. Let's hope.

    But you know they won't.

    --
    As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
  7. Re: First, we just need to agree on all the standa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd be more willing to admit to having a PornHub account than a Facebook account.

  8. Good! Looks like Hell! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is just a Trojan Horse so that those advertising companies can leverage the data and slam more advertisements under our noses.

    It's their goal to turn the web into just one giant brain washing medium so we keep blowing our hard earned money on crap and keep voting for politicians who do their bidding.

    And the harder is to to get a standard, the better for us. See, this plan will only be to our detriment. It will not benefit us at all.

  9. this won't actually see the light of day.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    in order for this to happen, fierce competitors would need to share info about their data structures and what data they collect and store, in order to find suitable fields in each others' databases for every piece of information. that's company proprietary information that nobody is gonna give away willingly.

    1. Re:this won't actually see the light of day.. by hviniciusg · · Score: 1

      Not really, you don't need to share your internal data structure. thats what interfaces are for.

  10. An Interoperability Project by Luthair · · Score: 1

    would be a lot more useful. Maybe you can pull your chat history out of Facebook, but unless you convinced every other person to do the same you still can't message them so how will it help you to import the history into Skype, Hangouts, etc.

    Email is probably the only useful transfer here and that is Google & Microsoft only, if they actually support it...

  11. No thanks by Daetrin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm somewhat resigned to the fact that Google knows way too much about me, but at least I can take comfort in the fact that Facebook apparently knows almost nothing about me. I feel zero motivation to just volunteer information to them that they haven't been able to figure out for themselves already.

    --
    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    1. Re:No thanks by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We have noted your motivation and it is added to your data sheet and shared with all members.

      Just so you know, motivation levels go from 1 to 5 and they are as follows
      5) I happily agree
      4) I agree with a smile
      3) I agree
      2) I reluctantly agree
      1) I resent that I have no option and agree

      Please state your choice in the sharing of your data. Your choice is important to us.(tm)

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    2. Re:No thanks by malkavian · · Score: 1

      Oh where are the mod points when you need them. :)

    3. Re:No thanks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      np, i ticked an insightful for you.

      sr

  12. Data BLOCKING Project by Zorro · · Score: 1

    How about keeping them all blind with different identities for each so you can know who sold your data to a Spammer or worse?

    1. Re:Data BLOCKING Project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good luck with that, there's far too much metadata to account for in real life that can be used find strong correlations. All it takes is one slip up to link to disjoint datasets.

      Really what you need to do is push a lot of fake/false information out there, essentially pushing noise into your own data to make it difficult if not impossible for a third party to distinguish accurate data about yourself. I think there's something to be said about actively fighting these data harvesting practices at their own game.

  13. Translation: by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

    Trading data is currently hard because we all use different formats, we will all save money selling^H^H^Htrading your data in a single compatible format. We can make it open source so those poor smucks can help us make money on their data while providing free labor.

  14. This will be awesome for data theft by Bookwyrm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Now, when there is a security breach, there will be one standard format of personal data for criminal and intelligence agencies to process. This will streamline the process of mass identity theft and dissident profiling and improve efficiency.

    The new DTP standard will no doubt include a recommended machine learning front-end to easily allow organizations to slurp up people's information in a standardized way, correlate identities across different services, and target them with advertising, thus improving advertising revenue. When users allow the 'share my data with 3rd parties' option, now there will be a standard format for the data to be shared, allowing a greater proliferation of services ready to consume it.

    (Yes, this is mild sarcasm.)

    1. Re:This will be awesome for data theft by ctilsie242 · · Score: 1

      Isn't part of the standard having the data stored in a public AWS bucket?

    2. Re:This will be awesome for data theft by malkavian · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I think humanity did this once already.. Standard format was called "Paper" or something. :)
      But yes, you're essentially correct, we need to be careful.. I suspect that's the new social pressure that the younger generations are going to grow up with. Having to be a bit more sensible, and think a little more critically than their parents had to.

    3. Re:This will be awesome for data theft by mssymrvn · · Score: 1

      Sarcasm? Oh, I thought this was paraphrased from the press release.

    4. Re:This will be awesome for data theft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I sort of wondered if this would help certain three letter agencies with processing profiles. It would make it easier for the tool writers.

    5. Re:This will be awesome for data theft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am personally waiting for when ads start using javascript to pull all your data from the API.

    6. Re:This will be awesome for data theft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No it will make identity theft obsolete. Now all you have to do is learn the API and then you can download everything your heart desires.

  15. Easier to share, Easier to steal, Easier to snoop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    great.

  16. To quote Ted Ts'o by snapsnap · · Score: 3

    "The security implications of this are awe inspiring."

  17. How about getting photos out of Flickr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who knows what the future of that will be, but I'd like an easy way to get photos out of Flickr and into GooglePhotos.

  18. Ueah! Sync that shit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    have ALL the data!

  19. No by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is four competitors who each hold siloed data about their members trying to create a giant datapool, where the each volunteer information into it and then pull information out. So all of them can serve more targetted ads. It's the admission of these four companies that they're not competing on selling ads on third party sites (Google pretty much owns that), they're selling ads on their own. Which means they all get better ad targeting and higher payouts.

    --
    Your ad here. Ask me how!
    1. Re:No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You got it in one. Exactly. I have long since moved my email and other needs to paid services I trust, namely Fastmail. I'm about to spin up my own encrypted data store online that requires one time passwords. I trust my own data in a store I control. Fastmail have proven trustworthy over the years so I stay with them (since 2002).

  20. ignorant beyond belief by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but at least I can take comfort in the fact that Facebook apparently knows almost nothing about me.

    are you really this stupid or are you a Facebook employee ? your friends talk about you on facebook all the time. "what friends" you say...

    1. Re:ignorant beyond belief by Daetrin · · Score: 1

      After seeing the crazy stuff other people found when they did the personal info download thing from Facebook i tried it myself, and it was practically empty. So either:

      1: Facebook is lying about what they put in the report and everybody else is colluding with Facebook by saying that their reports show a lot of data.

      2: Facebook has individually singled me out because I'm special for some reason and is individually manipulating my report.

      3: Facebook actually has almost no data on me because i post nothing on there (and practically never log in anyways) and outside of the occasional photo tag my friends say nothing about me on Facebook because they know i don't use it, so what's the point?

      So given the alternatives of a massive conspiracy involving (at least) thousands of people or believing that i'm a unique special snowflake who's vitally important to Facebook for some reason, i'm going with "Facebook doesn't know anything about me."

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    2. Re: ignorant beyond belief by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even people not on facebook is on facebook. It's called "shadow profile" and it's a thing.

      http://theconversation.com/shadow-profiles-facebook-knows-about-you-even-if-youre-not-on-facebook-94804

    3. Re: ignorant beyond belief by Daetrin · · Score: 1

      I'm on Facebook. I have a profile. I just don't use it. I'd certainly believe Facebook is gathering some information about me from other people, but if so they haven't managed to correlate it back to my account yet. If i've actually tricked Facebook into thinking that i'm two different people, that may actually be even better?

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    4. Re: ignorant beyond belief by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they haven't managed to correlate it back to my account yet.

      how can you tell this without internal access? do you really believe what they say? wow, what a sucker you are

    5. Re: ignorant beyond belief by Daetrin · · Score: 1

      So again, Facebook is telling everyone else that it knows lots of information about them, but they're lying specifically to me and claiming that they don't in my case. What's their motivation? Why am i special?

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    6. Re: ignorant beyond belief by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they're lying specifically to me

      they are lying to everyone about everything, you are nothing special

      if you cannot see their pattern of continuous lies then you are just plain ignorant

  21. /dev/null by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    Can you get them to transfer your data to /dev/null? I sincerely think that's the best option for everyone.

  22. Wholesale personality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now big tech companies who have too much data about me, and that data will be more complete than ever before. Awesome.

    Not feeling especially guilty for using Facebook Container, adblocking and Incognito Mode, anymore.

  23. I haven't seen an ad in 15 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I use adblock

    1. Re:I haven't seen an ad in 15 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use adblock

      Me too. But I allow in-domain ads. Win-win.

  24. Solid by mspohr · · Score: 1

    It would be more useful to own and control your data and not just transfer it from one greedy big corp to another (all of which will sell you out to the highest bidder).
    Something like Tim Berners-Lee's Solid project for a decentralized web (https://github.com/solid/)

    From Github:
    Specifically, Solid is:

    A tech stack -- a set of complementary standards and data formats/vocabularies that together provide capabilities that are currently available only through centralized social media services (think Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/many others), such as identity, authentication and login, authorization and permission lists, contact management, messaging and notifications, feed aggregation and subscription, comments and discussions, and more.
    A Specifications document that describes a REST API that extends those existing standards, contains design notes on the individual components used, and is intended as a guide for developers who plan to build servers or applications.
    A set of servers that implement this specification.
    A test suite for testing and validating Solid implementations.
    An ecosystem of social apps, identity providers and helper libraries (such as solid.js) that run on the Solid platform.
    A community providing documentation, discussion (see the solid gitter channel), tutorials and talks/presentations.
    Standards Used
    The Solid platform uses the following standards.

    RDF 1.1 (Resource Description Framework) (see also RDF Primer) is heavily used in Solid data models. By default, the preferred RDF serialization format is Turtle. Alternative serialization formats such as JSON-LD and RDFa can also be used.

    The WebID 1.0 (Web Identity and Discovery) standard is used to provide universal usernames/IDs for Solid apps, and to refer to unique Agents (people, organizations, devices). See also the WebID interoperability notes for an overview of how WebID relates to other authentication and identity protocols.

    WebIDs, when accessed, yield WebID Profile documents (in Turtle and other RDF formats).

    The FOAF vocabulary is used both in WebID profiles, and in specifying Access Control lists (see below).

    Authentication (for logins, page personalization and more) is done via the WebID-TLS protocol. WebID-TLS extends WebID Profiles to include references to the subject's public keys in the form of X.509 Certificates, using Cert Ontology 1.0 vocabulary. The authentication sequence is done using the HTTP over TLS protocol. Unlike normal HTTPS use cases, WebID-TLS is done without referring to Certificate Authority hierarchies, and instead encourages host server-signed (or self-signed) certificates.

    In Solid, certificate creation is typically done in the browser using the HTML5 keygen element, to provide a one-step creation and certificate publication user experience.

    Authorization and access lists are done using Basic Access Control ontology (see also the WebAccessControl wiki page for more details).

    Solid uses the Linked Data Platform (LDP) standard (see also LDP Primer) extensively, as a standard way of reading and writing generic Linked Data resources.

    --
    I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
  25. publicly owned companies floating like dump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    want to trade data with each other, who cares. #WalkAway . Let the commis do as they please. We need new platforms. m'Russianz

  26. I wouldn't mind... by thePsychologist · · Score: 1

    Perhaps some motivated individual will come up with a way to use this ideal to overwrite your data on every major service with zeroes. A standard API for personal data might be a good thing, if it comes with a delete function.

    --
    "What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
  27. UID by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are millions of fake accounts on these services.

    Intelligence agencies in various countries have been working to uniquely profile every citizen on the planet. By aggregating user data from large social media accounts and online services, they can more accurately and uniquely identify the various citizens on planet earth.

    What they plan to do with that data is anyone's guess.

  28. what a cretin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Really what you need to do is push a lot of fake/false information out there, essentially pushing noise into your own data to make it difficult if not impossible for a third party to distinguish accurate data about yourself.

    "do exactly what any criminal would do to cover their crimes, that's how you hide"

  29. Action Required by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Contact your congress creatures and ask that they make it illegal for companies to share or buy profiles unless the profiled user also gets a copy of all the same data. After all, how else can you determine if the company is engaging in libel against you?

    1. Re:Action Required by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I forgot to mention, now ban lists will be propagated across services. Someone lies about a copyright infringement and gets your account taken down. Now everyone else will proactively take down your accounts too since AI says you're a more risky user to have on their platform. There won't be anything you can do about it.

  30. This is a problem? by techdolphin · · Score: 1

    Seriously, this is a problem? I thought the data got transferred with no problem. I thought I was the only one who had trouble accessing my data.

  31. Ta-Dah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I present the new Fooglesoft, & Twitter's the biatch.

  32. the four beasts ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Information is not knowledge.
    Knowledge is not wisdom.
    Wisdom is not truth.
    Truth is not beauty.
    Beauty is not love.
    Love is not music.
    Music is THE BEST.

    Frank Zappa

    Rev. 4:6-11
    the four beasts ?????????????