Following Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional hearing over how the company handles users’ data and how the Cambridge Analytica privacy gaffe occurred in the first place, the social network’s sister concern, Instagram, will soon let you download the content you’ve shared on the platform.
A spokesperson told TechCrunch:
We are building a new data portability tool. You’ll soon be able to download a copy of what you’ve shared on Instagram, including your photos, videos and messages.
That’s the first step it’s taken in giving users more control over their data in recent times, and in providing a simple way to take your content off Instagram, whether to create a personal archive, or to move to a different social network.
It’s similar to the Download Your Information tool that Facebook has offered since 2010; that tool offers a more comprehensive package of your interactions on the network, and was recently found to include logs of your calls and text messages dating back years.
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Instagram says it’ll soon share more details about exactly what your download will contain, and whether it’ll include things like your following and follower lists, comments, and Stories.
That’s not just Instagram being good to its users: it’s also a crucial step in complying with the European Union’s GDPR privacy regulations, which will make data portability mandatory for such services when they go into effect next month.
Instagram hasn’t come under fire for betraying users’ trust the way Facebook has, so it’s mostly in the clear on that front – for now. Offering data portability is a good start, and it should probably audit its inner workings to ensure that people’s data is truly safe and private, before any shit hits the fan.
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