Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter will now let you transfer data between their services
Some of the tech giants have partnered up to allow easier information sharing between their platforms.
The news: In news originating from the Data Transfer Project, which was founded last year, large sites including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Instagram, Flickr, and Twitter will now be able to use information already uploaded on one service to populate the same user’s account on another platform. The new tools can grab and translate information from the different services’ proprietary APIs (aka tools or protocols within the software).
What it means for you: Instead of uploading photos, events, contacts, or other personal information to a slew of websites, you will now be able to automatically access it on other platforms—no reuploading required. So if you’ve uploaded your favorite picture to Instagram, you can easily share it to your Flickr account, too.
Why do this? While it is about making things easier for users, it’s also related to GDPR compliance. The new EU regulation requires companies to allow users to easily transport their data between different services.
What’s next: The project is looking for additional partners and is working to streamline the data transfer process even further.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.
And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.
OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora
The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.
Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.
Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.
This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language
A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.