The Data Transfer Project (DTP) is an open-source initiative which features data portability between multiple online platforms.[2][3] The project was launched and introduced by Google on July 20, 2018, and has currently partnered with Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter,[4][5] and Apple.[6]
Background
The project was formed by the Google Data Liberation Front in 2017, hoping to provide a platform that could allow individuals to move their online data between different platforms, without the need of downloading and re-uploading data.[7][4] The ecosystem is achieved by extracting different files through various available APIs released by online platforms and translating such codes so that it could be compatible with other platforms.[8][9]
On July 20, 2018, the joint project was announced. The source code, which has been uploaded to GitHub, was mainly written by Google and Microsoft's engineers.[10]
On July 30, 2019, Apple announced that it will be joining the project, allowing data portability in iCloud.[6]
Implementations
On 2 December 2019, Facebook announced the ability for users to transfer photos and videos to Google Photos, originally available only in a select few countries. This expanded over the following months, and on 4 June 2019 Facebook announced full global availability of this feature.[11]