Data Portability . . . for Selfies and Photos of Your Dog

Giving consumers more control over which third parties can access their data — and which entities consumers choose to share personal data with — has been top of mind among regulators for a while now. We’ve already seen laws enacted to give people more control over their financial data, such as Europe’s PSD2, which enables bank customers to give third-party providers — such as fintechs — permission to retrieve account data from their banks.

Increasingly under fire from regulators, Facebook this week announced a PSD2-like feature wherein users can transfer data, such as photos and videos, to other platforms. The new tool will first launch in Ireland and be available worldwide in the first half of 2020, Facebook said in a blog post. Users will be able to transfer their information from settings under “Your Facebook Information,” where data downloads are already available, CCBC reports. 

Whether this move towards data portability gets Facebook back in the good graces of regulators and the public remains to be seen.