For long, the social media behemoth Facebook has not exactly been know as a pro-privacy platform. While it is true that despite all data breaches and privacy debacles, a huge chunk of individuals still uses Facebook on a daily basis, there also exist many who would love nothing more than fleeing the platform.
Well, for those in the latter category, there’s good news. From today onwards, by rolling out a new update to the platform’s already existing data export tool, Zuckerberg is making it easier for you to transfer all of your photos and notes from Facebook.
The option is very easily accessible. Users need to log into their Facebook account and then head to the settings menu to activate the new transfer tools. The social media giant is letting users export their posts and notes to Google Docs, Blogger and WordPress, which makes it easy for the data to be archived and stored.
Similarly, for photos and videos, one can transfer them to Google Photos and Dropbox. Both these services were already supported from before. However, after the new update, it has become easier to safely wipe off valuable content from the site without erasing them permanently.
So, how do you access Facebook’s newly updated data export tool?
To get started, go to your profile’s setting menu. Next, select ‘Transfer a Copy of Your Information from the ‘Your Information’ tab. Once you’ve done that, you will be presented with an option to choose between file types such as photos, videos, posts and notes before exporting.
Do not worry about which option to pick first, as multiple transfers can take place simultaneously. But that being said, depending on the platform you choose to export your data into, you might need to grant permissions to Facebook.
At present, even with the newly rolled out update, the tool is extremely limited. Facebook hopes to expand its support to other data types and more platforms in the future. However, suppose you are someone who has long been trying to get off the platform but chose not to do so because of the content you’ve accumulated on Facebook across several years. In that case, the three external apps supported right now should suffice. It is an extremely easy out.
For a company that has rightly been labelled as an ‘internet privacy monger’, it is pretty unbelievable that they’ve made available the option to remove users’ private information from the platform safely. Maybe it’s safe to assume Facebook has not yet traversed too far beyond what is ethical? Who knows.
All in all, the data export tool is for anyone who is looking to quickie rid themselves of the platform with no strings attached. Thus, they shouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity. We will keep you updated on all future developments. Until then, stay tuned.
