
Instagram launches “Data Download” tool to let you leave - artsandsci
https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/24/instagram-export/
======
numerlo
>Two weeks ago TechCrunch called on Instagram to build an equivalent to
Facebook’s “Download Your Information feature so if you wanted to leave for
another photo sharing network, you could. The next day it announced this tool
would be coming and now TechCrunch has spotted it rolling out to users.

So we've moved from companies trying to make compliance to GDPR look like they
are doing us a favor out of the goodness of their hearts to now tech sites
trying to take the credit for that too. Who will be the next I wonder.

~~~
antihero
A company using it's compliance to regulation as a PR exercise? Who'd have
thought it!

Phone companies in the UK at least do this boasting EU free roaming as a
"feature" they're so nice to provide, except that it's UK law. Three are the
only network that did this voluntarily (and their Feel at home thing is also
many places outside the EU which is nice)

~~~
NicoJuicy
It's a EU law, not an UK one

~~~
dingaling
And a ridiculous one. It's a Common Market, not a Price-Flat Market.

~~~
Angostura
That is exactly what the regulations put in place. They don't mandate a price-
flat market.

------
raldi
In the past, when a government sent an Internet company a National Security
Letter (or equivalent), it was a lot of work for them to dig up every trace of
content that user has ever produced or had recorded about them -- think, for
example, of a Google account, which might have GMail archives, chat logs,
search history, YouTube videos, Google+ posts, Google Voice records, Chrome
backups....

It used to be really hard to gather all that information and package it up in
a nice little bundle. It used to be hard for a company to get their software
engineers to quietly implement such functionality across all products without
getting internal angst and bad press leaks.

But now, companies can just tell their software engineers that they're writing
user-friendly data-portability features. Across all product lines, they'll
happily code away, completely oblivious to the fact that their code is also
going to be used for this other purpose.

~~~
untog
If you extend your logic (anything that can be used for government
surveillance was created _for_ government surveillance) pretty much anything
is guilty of this. The existence of Facebook itself, Google providing an
e-mail service, _anyone_ providing an e-mail service, anyone providing access
to the internet...

That's probably the least charitable way of looking at this. It's a tool for
data portability that gives users access to their own content, in a way they
weren't previous able to do. If the government wanted some data on a user I
think they're going to get it from the company whether this service exists or
not.

~~~
deegles
The implication is that if you create the technology for “good” then you also
make its misuse possible.

~~~
rando444
Why stop at technology?

You can use pretty much anything for good or bad. Rocks, Nitrogen,
Automobiles, Thoughts.. it's an endless list.

~~~
bausshf
The only thing you can't use for good is Windows Vista

------
raiyu
I think people are confusing lock in with lack of choice.

Any network platform is creating lock in through network effects and your data
that is stored there is also creating some amount of lock in. You could choose
to abandon that network for any other one, there will be some pain felt in
regards to personal data but that's about it.

In a lack of choice context, you literally have no choice. Like with many
locations and the cable provider that you use. If you don't use them, you have
no alternative.

Most of these lock-in platforms are really not a necessity, and the reality is
that it's not the data as much as the network itself that becomes the large
lock in mechanism.

But either way, it's not the same thing as having only one option available.
Then you truly have no ability to move elsewhere.

------
fredley
If you do want to delete your account, and you're in the EU, wait until after
the 25th of May. Once the GDPR is in force, your rights concerning your data
when you delete your account are much, much stronger.

~~~
nsbq71
Okay, is this really true or not? Because I marked my FB acc for deletion a
few days ago and reading this so much is making me think of cancelling and
waiting until now, but it really doesn't make much sense

~~~
idoh
Sounds true to me. May 25 is the start date, and the penalties for
noncompliance are insane.

~~~
nsbq71
I thought it worked retroactively too.

~~~
idoh
It is possible that there is some other rule in place for that, but the GDPR
isn't retroactive as far as I remember.

~~~
lixtra
GDPR is already active. It's just the punishment section that is not yet
active. On May 25th, if a company has (still) data about you, they have to
comply or (now) face the consequences.

~~~
idoh
That's a really pedantic interpretation :) It has been adopted and published,
but enforcement starts May 25. Because nothing can actually happen until May
25, I think that is a more reasonable date to say that it is "active".

------
ucaetano
I wonder if they purposefully downsized the resolution of the images to give
its users a big "fuck you" for leaving, like Facebook does (all FB images from
the "data download" option were downsized to ~800x600)?

~~~
airstrike
It's my impression that the images get lossily compressed upon upload so not
even sure if they even had an alternative here.

~~~
ucaetano
I don't know about Instagram, but on FB they definitely aren't. You can still
access the full size image, but when you download all your data, they only
give you the 800x600 version, "conveniently" stripped of all exif data.

------
seccess
I like to plug Google takeout[0] in these convos, which also lets you export
data if you want to leave. Many people don't seem to know about it, but it is
quite mature and has been around for many years.

EDIT: To expand on this a bit more, I do wish there was more industry
standardization when it comes to data import/export. Is there any standardized
format for chat history, for example?

[0] [https://takeout.google.com](https://takeout.google.com)

------
CaptainZapp
This may be a naive question, but since I don't use social media at all (save
for a pretty dormant linked-in account) I really don't see the use of
downloading your photos from a picture sharing site.

Is it because of the contacts you have and would that data be in any usable
format?

While I can see the appeal of a photo sharing site to share pictures I would
have to be incredibly reckless or stupid to use such a site for archival
purposes (let alone that I certainly wouldn't trust them not to wreck my
pictures with some heavy handed compression or scaling).

Is it just me who cares about my original images enough to archive them
redundantly on a variety of storage media? And if that's not so, why would I
ever care to be able to retrieve my pictures from such a site?

~~~
yeswecatan
Most people aren't like you :)

I would imagine many people lose photos over the years, whether it's getting a
new phone or simply not understanding how iCloud/Google Photos etc. works.
Photos from Instagram will also have any filters you added.

------
donttrack
I clicked "I am 13 years old or below" just because I could and am now locked
out because I am not old enough obviously.

I wonder if I come back in 6 months and try to revive my account by contacting
Instagram they will still have the account on file.

------
_pRwn_
you can thank the EU-GDPR for this. The EU will enforce fines of 20 million
Euros or 4% of annual global turnover if they don't comply.

------
holri
Thank's to GDPR and EU.

------
zimpenfish
Note that this doesn't seem to include your photos (even though the download
page says it does) - I got a 386kb zip file of JSON. It doesn't include any
information -about- your photos either (when you posted, image filename, where
you posted it, your title, comments on it, etc.)

I assume this is some kind of first draft or staged rollout?

------
mtgx
Thanks to GDPR.

~~~
ceejayoz
It's remarkable how many "we're being transparent! out of the sheer goodness
of our hearts!" emails I've gotten lately.

I also think it's hilarious that Techcrunch is acting like it's their doing
that this is coming.

------
bhnmmhmd
It's unfortunate how Instagram, as a very popular social network, has a very
slow speed of improvement. Too many features missing, UI still has issues (not
to mention the lack of a dark theme), the UX is just "weird" and the setting
menu reminds me of Winphone settings: too cluttered, many useless buttons, and
no icons!

On top of that, many times images won't just load. And Videos play
automatically, consuming much internet traffic.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _lack of a dark theme_

Why should this be a priority for anyone?

~~~
opencl
Dark themes can provide significant energy efficiency improvements on OLED
screens which are becoming increasingly popular. Though IG would probably
benefit significantly less than text-heavy apps because the screen is mostly
taken up by photos which aren't impacted by dark themes.

[https://www.anandtech.com/show/9394/analysing-amoled-
power-e...](https://www.anandtech.com/show/9394/analysing-amoled-power-
efficiency)

This article is a bit old, but on the Galaxy S6 at full brightness displaying
an image with 40% average picture level saves half a watt compared to full
white.

------
downandout
_Instagram has become the dominant image sharing social network with over 800
million users. It shouldn’t need to lock up users’ data in order to keep them
around._

That's fine for Instagram, but what about startups that want to compete with
them? They'll find that users will build up collections of photos and videos
(perhaps using proprietary filters that make a given application popular for a
while) at their expense, and then instantly abandon their platforms. GDPR is
great, or at least not a negative for large platforms, but a disaster for
startups.

~~~
fwdpropaganda
> Instagram has become the dominant image sharing social network with over 800
> million users. It shouldn’t need to lock up users’ data in order to keep
> them around.

> That's fine for Instagram, but what about startups that want to compete and
> find that users can now build up collections of photos and videos (perhaps
> using proprietary filters that make a given application popular for a while)
> at their expense and then instantly abandon their platforms? GDPR is great,
> or at least not a negative for large companies, but a disaster for startups.

So what are you saying? That startups _should_ have the right to lock up their
users just so they can have a business?

No, sorry. If your business depends on "locking up users", maybe you shouldn't
have a business.

~~~
downandout
_So what are you saying? That startups should have the right to lock up their
users just so they can have a business?_

I'm saying that startups should have the right to engineer their platforms in
the way that they see fit. Because of GDPR, no startup (at least those that
accept EU traffic) will ever achieve the social lock-in that Instagram has.
Instagram built their user base in an era where it was difficult for average
users to get their pictures out. Did your startup come up with a new set of
filters that make photos go really viral? Awesome! Users will just make it in
your app and then export it to Instagram, where people will actually see it.
You'll go bankrupt...but Instagram usage will increase as a result of your
efforts.

~~~
politician
> I'm saying that startups should have the right to engineer their platforms
> in the way that they see fit.

We don't let people build homes or other buildings as they see fit because
over time we've realized that the failure of one building can adversely affect
the neighborhood.

We don't let businesses handle their financials in any way they see fit
because over time we've realized that using a generally accepted set of
accounting principles helps avoid cascading financial disasters.

Now, honestly, how can you say with a straight face that we should let
businesses manage data in any way they see fit because it's "their platform"?

Nonsense, we have an obligation to regulate how data is collected, processed,
and used or sold to protect society against the adverse effects of data that
is used to abuse.

~~~
semperdark
Only public companies are required to respect GAAP, and they choose to do so
because they want access to a regulated market.

Is a building on Pluto subject to the same building codes? If my server
spontaneously combusts, should I warn those with IPs near mine that theirs may
catch fire?

You have no obligation to visit my web service, enter data into it, or
interact with it. It takes up no space, and you have no "passing" interactions
with it.

The contention is that others should not be _allowed_ to use my web service,
unless it provides you certain features.

I'm believe we should support privacy on the web, but this is not the way to
do it.

~~~
politician
Well, remember, what is actually happening here is that your web service is
deploying code, including malware, onto my computer. The malware payload
steals all of my personal data unbeknownst to me, and sends it to random 3rd
parties.

So, that's pretty nasty, and yes, I want it to be regulated.

~~~
semperdark
No, not _my_ web service. Some may be, but my web service is still punished.
Most of the rules apply even if you are sharing no data with third parties.

If this was just about third-party trackers, the EU could have written a law
similar to the cookie warning. People who care about that (including myself)
can use browser addons or block third-party cookies.

~~~
politician
I think these rules are all fine, desirable even -- if your web service isn't
able to follow them, perhaps consider buying some off-the-shelf applications
with built in support for these regulations.

This isn't punishment any more than making sure your electrical box is 72" off
the ground and your gas meter has nothing around it within 5'.

