
Show HN: Textile – Return Facebook photo exports back to nicely-named galleries - andrewxhill
https://fb.textile.photos/
======
headsoup
Things like this are what might actually turn the trending #deletefacebook
statements into actions. Maybe.

While it's nice that 'alternative Facebooks' are gaining visibility, those I
don't think will really get people out. Simple tools on the other hand, to
give people their data in a usable format, will.

Next, perhaps a nice 'export registered groups with Admin and user list,' or
'list of sites I've used Facebook login for,' or, 'export Facebook pack:
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp...

~~~
askvictor
Indeed, but for this kind of thing to make a serious dent in Facebook, it
would need to include a photo hosting and sharing service. Which,
unfortunately, cost money to hold the data, so you either need to charge for
hosting, or collect revenue through ads or selling data (self-hosting would be
nice, but difficult to get your grandma to do it)

But, maybe even a simple photo sharing service _that lets you share those
photos back to facebook users_ might be the first crack in the dam wall

~~~
andrewxhill
While it is going to cost money of course, this is exactly what we are
building into our product. But instead of using centralized servers that know
your private keys, we are building it on decentralized hosting (IPFS) and we
never know your private keys. Take a look,
[https://www.textile.photos/](https://www.textile.photos/)

~~~
askvictor
That's pretty cool. Can I suggest though, that sharing easily on other
platforms will be important (at least as a stepping stone)? So that might
involve building a facebook app that shows shared photos as well as the
default one. Even though this might seem counter to #deletefacebook, I think
you need to let people take small steps to taking their data back.

~~~
andrewxhill
Totally, I'm into that. One of the big motivators here is how painful it is
currently to move _your_ photos (or any personal data) across services. We
want to build an open system where you control where your data goes and how.
It seems like a great idea to have outbound integration like that for sure.

------
eddyg
This is an open-source project, in case you don't feel like dropping your zip
file in to your browser (even though it does run _in_ your browser):

[https://github.com/textileio/textile-
facebook](https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook)

~~~
tmwed
Keep in mind that, just because it's open source, and possibly hosted on
github pages doesn't mean that the hosted copy is the same as the open-source.
Referring to the IOTA seed generator hack that happened earlier this year.
([https://thatoddmailbox.github.io/2018/01/28/iotaseed.html](https://thatoddmailbox.github.io/2018/01/28/iotaseed.html))
(not my site).

~~~
carsonfarmer
Yup, take a look at the page source to be as sure as you can :)

~~~
carsonfarmer
We made sure it wasn't uglyfied or minified, so folks who want can see what's
up

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chatmasta
If a social network wants to take over for Facebook, an “import your data from
your Facebook export” tool would be a killer growth hack.

Also, there’s really no reason Facebook couldn’t organize photos this already.
I feel like they make that data dump as obfuscated as possible to discourage
you from doing anything useful with it.

~~~
edjw
Absolutely. One of the big issues with GDPR is going to be how to practically
use the right to port your data. Export functionality is one thing. It's the
import bit that's often not there or isn't practical. Some standards would
help.

~~~
chatmasta
I was expecting someone to mention GPDR, but as an obstacle more than a
benefit. It seems importing your Facebook data, which includes messages and
connections with _other_ people, into a new service, may run afoul of GPDR.
That’s not even to mention the legal hellstorm Facebook would rain down on any
startup using such a tool successfully.

It’s interesring that GPDR forces Facebook to allow export, but may cause
problems with importing that data elsewhere. The hand giveth, the hand taketh
away.

------
jaza
About six years ago I wrote about the perils of using Facebook as your primary
photo store (among other things) -
[http://greenash.net.au/thoughts/2011/10/dont-trust-
facebook-...](http://greenash.net.au/thoughts/2011/10/dont-trust-facebook-
with-your-data/) . Sad to see that so few people have followed my advice, that
a tool such as this is necessary.

------
pmilot
Name conflict warning: There is already a software project named Textile.
Here's the homepage: [https://txstyle.org/](https://txstyle.org/)

~~~
etskinner
Also github's textile:
[https://github.com/textile](https://github.com/textile)

------
djangowithme
After hearing people talk about finding very personal things in their archive
like audio recordings, I tried downloading mine. I was almost disappointed to
find that it essentially just outputted my public facebook profile. Nothing
remotely unusual about the data, but i'm sure there's much more that they wont
admit to or hand over.

~~~
Symbiote
I wondered about that.

Facebook know what I visit a site with an embedded tracker. This isn't in my
data dump, but things like "interest in X" are. Do they really use the
tracking to influence those scores, then throw away the data?

~~~
crtasm
I'd assume they keep every ping from the tracker but simply class it as
"their" data instead of "your" data.

~~~
Symbiote
If that were the case, then they are not complying with the existing European
rules giving "data subjects" (me) the right to see data about them.

They would be allowed to remove all identifying information from the ping,
e.g. retain a date, approximate location and so on, but not an identifier than
links to my account.

[https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-
protectio...](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-
protection/principle-6-rights/subject-access-request/)

------
andrewxhill
We also put it on ProductHunt in case any of you want to share with others
over there, [https://www.producthunt.com/posts/facebook-gallery-
recovery](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/facebook-gallery-recovery)

------
ucaetano
Does it fix Facebook's removal of exif/metadata from images?

~~~
andrewxhill
Oh no! I saw that FB put the metadata into the html but didn't realize they
_ALSO_ removed them from the images. I'll look into what's possible!

~~~
tantalor
You can scrape it from the original photo page. I made an extension that does
that:

[https://github.com/tantalor/fb-photo-meta](https://github.com/tantalor/fb-
photo-meta)

------
mohsen1
I made one a few years ago that support EXIF and correct dates

[https://github.com/mohsen1/fb-photo-fetch](https://github.com/mohsen1/fb-
photo-fetch)

~~~
typpo
I hacked together something similar (not CLI) at
[https://www.fbexporter.com/](https://www.fbexporter.com/)

------
roadbeats
This is awesome, it makes me wish I had my Facebook data. I deleted my account
without downloading it :/

~~~
andrewxhill
Bummer. There is a grace period, I forget how many days, where you can undo it
before it's gone forever. You could sign back in, undo, export, and then redo.
Unless you did it too long ago.

------
creo
It would be so funny if Textile gathered all the data. So much irony.

~~~
carsonfarmer
Haha, that would be pretty hypocritical of us! Check out the source to be sure
we aren't: [https://github.com/textileio/textile-
facebook](https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook), and if you really
want to be sure that's what we're deploying, use your browser's dev tools to
inspect the code ([https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Learn/Common_questi...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/What_are_browser_developer_tools)).

------
gk1
Not working for me. The output is the same as the input. Any ideas?

~~~
andrewxhill
Very odd. If you drag the zip onto your laptop and the drop event listener
doesn't pick up on it, your browser would likely just "download" the zip you
dropped. Which explains what you see I'm guessing. What I'm not sure about is
why the JS doesn't pick up on the drop event and process the file. Do you have
any settings that would block JS? What browser are you using?

~~~
forcer
I tried in latest versions of FF and CH and it does not work (on Windows10).
When I drag the ZIP archive to the area it does not do anything. Do all people
just try on MAC or why it does not work for me?

~~~
carsonfarmer
Hi forcer, when you drag it over the 'drop zone' does the little zip
image/icon disappear?

~~~
carsonfarmer
Ok, this looks like this issue: [https://github.com/textileio/textile-
facebook/issues/4](https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook/issues/4)
We'll try to update this soon!

~~~
carsonfarmer
Fixed on github, should be live soon(ish)

------
s_clemens
I'm getting all my zip archives with x-zip-compressed MIME type. Any way to
convert it to application/zip or make it work with x-zip-compressed?

~~~
carsonfarmer
We just pushed some changes to fix this. If you want quick access, take a look
at the code over at: [https://github.com/textileio/textile-
facebook](https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook). Those fixes will go
'live' later. To get it running on your own system right away, you download
the zip (click clone or download) and run it locally.

~~~
s_clemens
thanks ;)

------
pattisapu
This is just a small issue (if it is an issue at all) -- maybe do something
with the name to distinguish it from Textile the markup language?

------
markk
you could integrate with people's existing dropbox (i.e. copy the photos into
it) and provide a super simple web viewer

~~~
carsonfarmer
cool idea, though for this small project, we're trying to keep everything
self-contained... so no data leaks possible...

------
alentodorov
Does anyone know other offline or online tools that allow you to visualise
data better from the FB export?

~~~
jepras
I am currently doing a CS101 course and was thinking about building exactly
that as my final exam. What type of visualization were you imagining to fit
your needs? What feature would be the most important of your dream tool to
achieve the purpose?

------
fimdomeio
Wow... So people who have issues with how facebook handles privacy should dump
their data in some other third party service? And probably some people will
because well... "dumb f __*s ".

Well it might actually be all good intentions (probably just read below is all
client side readable code) but if non coders use this service it just means
they learned nothing.

~~~
rootlocus
> All the data processing happens right in your browser. Your photos will be
> reorganized without ever being sent off of your device, your data remains
> yours :)

Don't know how exactly that works, though.

~~~
carsonfarmer
Yes that's right. Also, the code can be inspected here:
[https://github.com/textileio/textile-
facebook](https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook). For non-coders, if
you are concerned about us using your data (we won't!) you can a) trust us, b)
ask someone to check for you, or c) go to the page, turn off your wifi (so you
aren't connected to the internet), generate your archive and download, close
the page, and then click back on wifi... easy peasy :)

~~~
carsonfarmer
The way it works, is that all the Javascript code runs in your browser, that
way, there's need for any data to leave your computer... safe and spy-free!

