Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Twitter announced they are to collaborate on a new, open source initiative dubbed the ‘Data Transfer Project‘ to promote and define new standards for cross-platform portability.

In a recent blog post, Google explains that the main aim of the data transfer project is to allow consumers the ability to move their data between providers with ease by using “industry-standard infrastructure and authorisation mechanisms” which they claim will give consumers greater control over their data. Currently users of each platform have to download their archived data in total then upload again to a new service, regardless of whether it is contact information, photos, personal data, shared content. According to Microsoft, this new partnership and project will be critical in allowing people who want to switch to another product or service they think is better to do so as easily as possible.

Users In Control

In its own article Microsoft discusses the data transfer project and its objectives aimed at helping users securely and seamlessly move their data between service providers and calls on more companies to sign up to the initiative, adding that “portability and interoperability are central to cloud innovation and competition.” They go on further in the article to outline 4 key principles which will promote user choice and should encourage responsible product development primarily aimed to benefit the end user;

• Build for users
• Use stronger privacy and security standards
• Focus on the user’s data
• Respect everyone

Open Source, Greater Transparency

Because the project is open source, Google claims that “anyone can inspect the code to verify that data isn’t being collected or used for profiling purposes.” Users who are also familiar with open source projects are urged to download the tools and run an instance themselves. The existing code currently sits on Github where the bulk of the development has been done by Microsoft and Google engineers themselves who originally grew frustrated with the lack of portability between services and sought a more robust and secure method of data transfer.

In the wake of GDPR and Cambridge Analytica a collaboration such as the data transfer project is both timely and welcome.

The current version of the system supports data transfer for photos, mail, contacts, calendars, and tasks, drawing from publicly available APIs from Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and other services.