New Facebook feature lets you transfer media to Google Photos

Facebook is releasing a tool that will allow users to transfer their pictures to Google photos. The company hopes that its decision will help further the debate around privacy and data ownership.

Social networks provide a service that exists almost exclusively to profit from the contributions of its users. If you think about it, you can spend hours on Facebook without ever coming across any content actually created by the company.

Users, therefore, are critical to the success of any social network. You’d expect that means that users are treated as important. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case.

Data for sale

Social media company’s that have reached a critical mass have profited from our data without even giving us appropriate tools to manage our personal data.

Users have given mainly up their photo’s, videos, and privacy for free. In every other context, websites would be paying users for their content. Without our content and our friend networks, there is no Facebook.

So it is peculiar that we’ve reached this place where we’re being asked to applaud companies for considering the privacy of our data. It’s probably worth remembering that these are companies that are under constant scrutiny for their use of data.

Also, with changes to legislation in Europe, a lot of the nice quality of life measures being taken by Facebook et al. aren’t all out of the goodness of their hearts. These companies are being put under pressure to change the way they operate.

It’s getting better, but not for the reasons we assume

The charm offensive is also a sign that these companies are finally having to consider whether their users are actually happy with their service. They’re essentially creating space online for people to share their lives.

As we become more and more cautious about how we interact with the internet and what data we share, social networks are looking to make the spaces they create for us safer.

They started by acknowledging that our data doesn’t belong to them, and now they’re beginning to make it easier for us to take our data with us if we decide to leave.

Clear rules about online services and privacy

Steve Satterfield, Facebook’s director of privacy and public policy, explains:

“To foster that trust, people and online services need clear rules about what kinds of data should be portable and who is responsible for protecting that data as it moves to different services.”

The service is being trialled by Facebook in Ireland initially but could be rolled out to the rest of the world early next year. The service will make use of encryption to ensure that the data is safe as it is copied from Facebook’s servers.

Facebook developed the technology as part of its participation in the open-source Data Transfer Project. The Data Transfer Project includes major firms like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Twitter.

“To foster that trust, people and online services need clear rules about what kinds of data should be portable and who is responsible for protecting that data as it moves to different services,” added Satterfield.