[Perform the following reality check next time you throw your data down Facebook & Co’s black hole:]
People usually don’t look to see if they can get their data out of a product until they decide one day that they want to leave. For this reason, we always encourage people to ask these three questions before starting to use a product that will store their data:
Can I get my data out in an open, interoperable, portable format?
How much is it going to cost to get my data out?
How much of my time is it going to take to get my data out?The ideal answers to these questions are:
Yes.
Nothing more than I’m already paying.
As little as possible.
Streetview might creep people out, but Google’s Data Liberation Front has some valid points and offers handy tools called Takeout.
A journalist's musings and wanderings, trying to find mindfulness and depth in the shallows of social media.
