We upload photos,real sex video cinemax whips videos, and personal stories. We share intimate details of our lives and our children's lives.
It's your life. It's your personal data. You should have access to it.
Why? Because this information — your private personal data — has never been more vulnerable.
Tech giants are susceptible to data leaks. If your data isn’t accidentally put out there, these tech companies share it with so many third-parties in the name of profit it's hard to keep track. Or, a company can always pull a MySpace, and outright delete all your data overnight thanks to an acquisition or shutdown.
If you knew how much these companies knew about you, you'd might want to step back from social media. And if you do, you shouldn't have to leave all that data behind. It's yours.
Thankfully, regulations like GDPR in the EU or CCPA in California are starting to put data back into users’ hands. Tech companies are now compelled to provide people with their own data. So Mashable took a look at which of these social media platforms do it best,
Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images Google / YouTube
Google probably has more of your personal data than any other tech company, but it's the gold standard when it comes to providing you with your data.
Unlike most platforms, Google treats data requests like a feature, not just like something it’s compelled to offer. It even gave the feature a name: Google Takeout.
To access Google Takeout, simply go to your Google Account settings and click Data & Personalization. Scroll down to the "Download your data" link and you've reached Google Takeout, a one-stop shop for all your Google-related data requests.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable We’re talking your Google Search history, YouTube videos, Google Maps locations, Android device settings, Hangouts conversations, Google Drive files, Blogger posts, Chrome bookmarks, your entire Gmail archive, the ads served to you, and more. You can even request data from shuttered Google products like Google+. Everything is easy to access, too. For example, your Gmail archive can simply be opened by your computer’s mail application.
Not only can you export all that and more, you can customize exactly what services you want in your data request a la carte. Those aren’t your only choices either. Users can decide if they want everything compiled into a ZIP or TGZ file and what the max file size for each should be. Google will then create as many files as it needs, without going over the 1GB to 50GB limit you set for each.
And there are scheduled exports! Perhaps what really sets Google Takeout apart from the rest is you can set a one-time archive or have Google create a new data export every two months for a year. You can also manually request as many automatic exports as you’d like. There’s no limit.
Of course, if you look around online, there are complaints about Google Takeout. Sometimes a ZIP file is corrupted or photos are exported without their metadata. But it appears that just requesting a new data archive solves some, if not all, of the issues.
Compared to everyone else, very few platforms come close to how easy Google makes the process.
Grade: A+
Credit: Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The world’s largest social network, Facebook, had its fair shareof scandalsover the years. So, if you want to collect your data and split, Mark Zuckerberg at least makes it extremely easy for you.
The option to request and download your datacan be found under Your Facebook Information under settings.
Facebook’s data request process is second only to Google. Users can request all of their data or select exactly what they want in their export: posts, photos and videos, comments, a list of your friends, event history, messages, groups, pages, search history, and even which advertisers have collected your information.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable One feature unique to Facebook’s data request is the ability to select the date range of the data you want to export, in case you only need the information from a specific timeframe. Users can also pick if they want an HTML or JSON export, and choose the quality of the media to minimize the size of the export.
The advertiser information is extremely fascinating. Facebook literally provides you with a list of every one of its advertisers that collected your data or got it from a third party. It even shows you every ad you’ve interacted with on the platform.
Another incredible datapoint: Facebook provides users with a link to every post, comment, and page that they've interacted with.
Facebook could still take a page from Google when it comes to its other products, though. Google Takeout provides the ability to request data from all of the company’s services. Being that Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp, it would great to be able to export data from all three products on one page.
Grade: A
Credit: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images LinkedIn provides another great model of how data requests should be done.
If you’re looking to export your LinkedIn data, just click on Settings and Privacy under your account menu. Under the privacy tab, scroll down to the section labeled “Getting a copy of your data.” LinkedIn provides users with an option to download a complete archive of their data or just download some of it section by section, much like Google Takeout.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable If you choose the full archive export, LinkedIn gets to work right away, saying it will send you a download link within 10 minutes containing CSV files with information like your profile, first-degree connections, resume, and full inbox. When I requested my data, it took a lot longer than 10 minutes, but waiting a few hours wasn’t so bad.
Following that, the platform will send you a second link within 24 hours containing everything else, like your account information, comments, photos, likes, search history, shares, and even the ads you’ve clicked on.
I’m not the heaviest LinkedIn user but from what I received in my data request, I’m impressed.
Grade: A
Credit: Aytac Unal/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images As a hardcore Twitter user, I was very impressed with how quickly the platform compiled my data request. Tens of thousands of tweets, thousands of media files, and all of the other internal data connected to my account took no more than 20 minutes to put together.
The Twitter request package contains a myriad of data including account information, full tweet archive, uploaded media archive, "Like" archive, following and follower lists, DM conversation history, advertiser data, and more.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable One-upping Facebook, Twitter doesn’t just provide you with a link to tweets that you liked, it also shows you the actual text of each liked tweet.
Twitter provides a ZIP containing JSON files, but I feel like HTML (as Facebook provides) would be better suited for this information. For example, your followers are listed by their numerical user ID, not their username. Twitter does provide a link to their profile, so it’s easy to figure out which user is which, but it’s not a clickable link like it would be in an HTML file.
Also, the DM history just lists the Twitter user ID, making it nearly impossible to tell who you were having a chat with.
All in all, Twitter loses the most points for removing a feature. The microblogging service used to offer users a Twitter template filled with all their tweets that could easily be uploaded to a host service, providing users with a public, self-hosted version of their Twitter account. Here’s hoping Twitter one day brings it back.
Grade: B+
Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images Snapchat
Even though snaps are ephemeral, the platform still allows users to request data whenever they like.
Unlike most of the other platforms on this list, Snapchat is completely mobile. However, its data requesttab forwards users to a mobile-friendly website. On the site, Snapchat details what data is available to check out from right within the app. It also runs down what would be included in a downloadable Snapchat data request: account information, login history, recent snap history and chat history, location and search history, friends list, and more.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable The downloadable zip file contains easy-to-read HTML files. Most useful is a file listing links to download all of your saved Memories. In my opinion, this is infinitely easier than going through these in the mobile app and downloading each locally. At the same time, Snapchat could have just included the media itself in the ZIP file and saved its users the extra steps.
Grade: B
Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images The most popular messaging app in the world, WhatsApp, does give users fairly easy access to their data. After all, it's owned by Facebook. However, there’s a small catch.
Users can request their data in the Settings menu under Account in the app. After tapping Request report, users will have to wait three days for the data to be ready. Your settings, profile information, and group names are all included in this report. However, it does not include your chat history.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable There is a separate step required to export your chat history and it's different depending on whether you’re using an iPhone, Android device, or Windows Phone. There are options to create full backups so you can restore your chat history at a later time, as well as the ability to export a specific chat’s messages via email or TXT file.
It’s good that WhatsApp provides all of this information. But it would be even to include everything in one easy-to-request archive, or even go the Snapchat route and list download links to all your chats.
Grade: B
BERLIN, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 27: In this photo illustration the logo of Instagram is displayed on a smartphone on September 27, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images) Credit: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images Facebook-owned Instagram comes right behind Facebook-owned WhatsApp in the data request test.
The data is easy to findin the settings under Privacy and Security and the turnaround for the ZIP file is no more than 48 hours. The downloadable package includes account information, follow lists, search history, easy-to-follow DM conversation history, comments, and most importantly: all the photos and videos posted to the account. That’s right, no secondary steps required to download all of your posts and media.
However, there are two major areas it’s lacking, especially disappointing coming from a platform run by Facebook (which, like I said earlier, is very good at providing your personal data).
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable The download package does not include Instagram ad data, which is disappointing because Facebook does provides this data.
Like Facebook, Instagram does provide your “like” history. Unlike Facebook, which provides a link to each item you liked, Instagram’s data request file just lists the user along with the data and time of their post, which is fairly meaningless without context.
Grade: B-
Credit: Jens Büttner/picture alliance via Getty Images Tumblr
Tumblr provides separate options for your data requests. The main optionis to download your data from your account under Privacy Settings. The company says this may take up to 30 days and it includes information, like signup date and login sessions, tied to your main Tumblr account.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable But what most users are probably looking for is the Export Blogfeature that’s available at the very bottom of the Blog Settings for each individual blog connected to your Tumblr account.
The blog export provides users with a quick way to move their blog off Tumblr. All the media files are compiled as well as HTML versions of every Tumblr post, reblog, draft, and more. It even includes a file containing all of the private messages made using that specific blog. If you have more than one blog, you need to repeat this process for every one.
Tumblr’s blog export fails in one crucial place. It does not export any of the comments left on your blog post. It appears there’s no way to do so. I gave a pass to Tumblr for its multi-step data request process. But blog comments should be exportable.
Grade: C+
Credit: MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Getty Images Periscope
If you want your data from the livestreams you run on Twitter, you’ll need to head on over to its streaming platform, Periscope.
I don’t have an issue with there being two separate data requests for Twitter and Periscope, as the former clearly runs the latter as a separate service.
In your settings, Periscope makes the Your Data section easy to find, and it didn’t take long for the service to compile my data. It creates an easy-to-navigate page with drop-down menus filled with your account info, details for each stream, the full list of your followers and who you follow, and more.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Unfortunately, the download package is just a single JSON file, which lacks links, making it hard to interpret the data. For example, your followers are listed as a random string of characters. On the web version, there’s a clickable link connected to each individual user. The file does not contain this.
In addition, if you want to download your videos, you need to navigate to the Analytics section of the website and download each of your streams one by one.
Grade: C+
21 June 2019, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Stuttgart: The Discord app is displayed on the screen of an iPhone. Photo: Fabian Sommer/dpa (Photo by Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images) Credit: Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images Discord
The chat platform most popular with gamers, Discord, provides a pretty clear and easy way to download your data. Users just need to head on overto Privacy and Safety in their Settings tab and click the Request Data link.
Discord only lets users request their data once a month. Furthermore, Discord says it can take up to 30 days for users to get their data. Out of all the platforms that compiled a personal data request package for me, Discord took the longest, and I honestly don’t have that much data on the service to begin with.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable The reason Discord gets a low grade, though, is that the data it provides is devoid of context. Yes, Twitter had the same issue but that was just with DMs. All of Discord’s data is like this.
For example, the messages folder contains multiple subfolders with just strings of numbers. Opening each one, you’ll find the messages you left across various Discord servers and all of your DMs. Those strings of numbers are each connected to a server user ID, but good luck figuring out where or who you were messaging.
Grade: C-
Credit: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images While Reddit does have a data request form, it isn't easy to find with a quick Google search. For those who want to download their information, they can do so here. The data request link appears on the company's help website hosted on a separate domain name, reddithelp.com.
The request takes up to 30 days to compile the data. Users can choose whether they want their full data or their data from within a specific timeframe.
The company also provides a Privacy & Security Help Center that has various direct links where you can see all your posts, comments, subreddits, etc. But there’s no way to export them beyond going through each page of each section and saving each one like you would any other webpage.
On various subreddits, there are individual users sharing links to scripts they created to pull their data, but we’re not looking for third-party tools here. These shared third-party scripts are in reply to users who post how they can’t find a Reddit data request option. We need a simple way to archive and export all of our user data from the platform itself. Reddit may have that, but it still needs to make it easier to find.
Grade: D+
Credit: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Pinterest does not provide its users with an automated way to export their data. The platform’s power users spend a lot of time curating their boards and posting pins. Not providing them with a way to archive any of that data isn't great.
There is a request pagethat explicitly states the rights of EU residents through GDPR. There’s also a form that allows users to contact the company’s Data Protection Officer. It’s unclear on the page if users outside the EU can request data via this form, so I reached out to Pinterest.
A Pinterest spokesperson confirmed the service does not have an automated data request feature yet but is “hoping to roll one out in the future”
“We provide users with their personal information when they ask us for it regardless of their location,” said the Pinterest spokesperson in a statement to Mashable. “Any user can make a request for their personal data through our Help Center, our data protection officerform, or by writing into us via email or by post.”
I was close to failing Pinterest, but its spokesperson made it clear that any user can contact the company for their data, which includes profile information, search history, ad data, settings, and more. Pinterest would’ve received a much higher grade if it made all of that clear on the website, instead of forcing me to talk to a company representative.
Grade: D
Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images Slack
Slack is very popular in offices. If you subscribe to the messaging platform as a workspace owner, the data export options are robust. You can download the entire workspace, even private messages that don’t involve you at all. If we were judging the company’s data request feature from someone who runs a business, it would get a much better grade.
But, Slack is fairly popular outside of business use too. Sometimes friends use Slack to chat. And there is nothing you can export directly from Slack without permission from individual workspace owners or administrators. This is not ideal as the service expands and people continue to find new uses for it.
This might seem to violate GDPR. But Slack gets around those regulations by saying that the user is a customer of the administrator — and it's the administrator who gets access to their data.
To cut Slack some, well, slack, Facebook Workplace, the social media company’s own (much less popular) Slack-like communication platform, works in a similar way.
But, because Facebook's main product is a social network, Workplace's is pretty much just for corporate use. If a Facebook user wants to build a community, they can just head over to Facebook Pages and Groups. Slack finds itself uniquely straddling the lines.
Discord provides a similar albeit free and more open messaging service. While it has its own data request issues mentioned earlier, Discord still allows users to export their private conversations as well as their own messages. Slack should figure out some sort of middle ground.
Grade: D-
Credit: LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images TikTok
The breakout social media platform of 2019, TikTok, has been no stranger to data privacy issues. ByteDance, the video app’s China-based parent company has been finedby the FTC here in the U.S. and is under investigationin the EU for GDPR violations based on how the company collected and used children’s data.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that TikTok has learned its lesson from these slaps on the wrist. The app has no way for users to automatically request their data. In fact, TikTok doesn’t seem to allow users to manually request their data via at all unless they live in California, thanks to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which was signed into law last year.
“Once a calendar year, you may be entitled to obtain information about personal information that we shared, if any, with other businesses for their own direct marketing uses,” reads TikTok’s privacy policy under the title, California Residents. “If applicable, this information would include the categories of customer information, as well as the names and addresses of those businesses with which we shared customer information for the immediately prior calendar year.”
TikTok provides an email address for those California residents to request the applicable data. There’s no mention of what EU residents can do for their data under GDPR.
So, unless you’re in California, you’re out of luck when it comes to accessing your TikTok data.
Grade: F
UPDATE: Dec. 17, 2019, 5:56 p.m. EST This story has been corrected to include information about Reddit's data request form. In a previous version of this story, Mashable gave Reddit an "F," and incorrectly noted it didn't have such a tool. Reddit's grade has been bumped up to a "D+" since the feature exists, but it is difficult to find.
Topics Facebook Google Social Media TikTok Reddit