Google is making it easier to back up and transfer your personal data between third-party services, in response to a GDPR investigation by Italy’s competition watchdog AGCM.
in a Press release In announcing the changes, the AGCM said that Google’s binding commitments “will ensure significant automation of the procedure available for data export” and “improve the interoperability mechanism that makes data available in the Google ecosystem accessible across platforms.” from third parties”.
Google has made three commitments to resolve the investigation. The first two involve improving Google Takeout, while the third will introduce a new solution to “enable direct data portability from one service to another” for authorized third-party operators, specifically with regard to data generated through user activity on Google’s online search engine and YouTube platform.
The commitments appear to build on Google’s existing work within the Data Transfer Initiative.
As 9to5Google notes, the third commitment appears to build on work Google is already doing within the Data Transfer Initiative, an open source project backed by Meta, Apple, Google, and Microsoft that supports the direct transfer of user data between platforms in line. The initiative already spawned a service-to-service transfer tool in 2020 that allows Facebook users to transfer their photos and videos to Google Photos without the need to manually download and re-upload the files.
The Google Takeout service already allows users to export their personal YouTube videos along with their search history and comments on the platform, as backup and preparation for export to third-party services. A “direct service-to-service porting solution” will make things easier and faster (no local downloads) for third-party users and operators. Google anticipates that this capability will be released during the first quarter of 2024 and that third-party service providers will be able to test it “at least six months” before the official launch.
The investigation began after Hoda, an Italian data export startup, accused Google of preventing its US users from sharing their personal data with other digital service platforms. By making Google’s proposed commitments binding, the AGCM has now closed its investigation.
