Data Transfer Project, or DTP, something very different: Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter teamed up for a new open source project that would make it easier to transfer data you between online services.
The Data Transfer Program (DTP from the Data Transfer Project) officially launched 2017, but it was officially presented today with its first four members. Data Transfer Project is reportedly looking for other active members.
The ultimate goal of the Data Transfer Program is to improve data portability. In short, this project will help users not download their data but transfer them directly to any other service.
Facebook, for example, announced a new data extraction tool earlier this year that allows its users to download a copy of all Facebook data. The updated tool was introduced after its scandal Cambridge Analytica. With DTP, Facebook and the other three companies are trying to create channels that make it easier to transfer data from platform to platform.
The launch of such a service (DTP) coincides with the disclosure of major data leakage scandals by major companies technologys. The US is currently expanding control and trying to curtail any data sharing. The UK has fined Facebook over its scandal Cambridge Analytica while Australia is preparing lawsuits. Facebook has been repeatedly accused of "privatizing" data, and of that confusing users obviously to share more data than what they would like. Google is also at the center of the controls because it was revealed that the third-party application developers they can read undisturbed messages of Gmail.
So starting a project that includes an API that facilitates data transfer is probably not a coincidence after all the above. However, this movement probably also linked to the implementation of the GDPR which stipulates that users should be able to easily transfer data between services. The DTP does not make direct reference to the GDPR, but the EU decision was probably the main driving force behind the start of the project.
