Starting today, you can transfer your Facebook photos and videos directly to two additional services – Dropbox and Koofr – using Facebook’s newest data portability tool.
Facebook has long believed that if you share data with one service, you should be able to move it safely and securely to another. That’s the principle of data portability, which gives people control and choice while also encouraging innovation.
For almost a decade, Facebook has enabled people to download their information from Facebook.
Earlier this year, the company rolled out a photo and video transfer tool with Google Photos and, based on feedback from users and experts, it has started to make it easy to transfer to other platforms.
Dropbox provides one organized place for your content and all the collaboration around it. Koofr, which is based on the root for “suitcase” in some European languages, provides safe and private online storage for all your files, all in one place.
Facebook’s photo and video transfer tool is based on code developed through the open source Data Transfer Project. You can access this tool in Facebook settings within Your Facebook Information.
From there, you can now select Dropbox or Koofr, in addition to Google Photos, and Facebook plans to expand this list soon.
Facebook says it designed this tool to optimize for privacy, security and utility. The company will ask you to re-enter your password before the transfer starts and encrypt your data as it moves between services, so you can be confident your data will be transferred securely.
Faceboo says it want to continue to build data portability features people can trust. To do that, the internet needs clearer rules about what kinds of data should be portable and who is responsible for protecting that data as it moves to different services. Policymakers have a vital role to play in this.
Facebook says it hopes this tool can advance conversations with experts, developers and policymakers on the privacy questions the company identified in its data portability white paper and recent submission to the Federal Trade Commission.
Facebook says it knows it can’t do this alone, so it is encouraging other companies to join the Data Transfer Project to expand options for people and push data portability innovation forward.
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