Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Facebook launch the "Data Transfer Project".

Some of you may be familiar with the Google Takeout service, also known as "Download your data". As its name indicates, you can use this service to get all the data that Google has stored on its servers.

Going further and having the same basics, Google, Twitter and Facebook have partnered and started Project Data Transfer (DTP). Companies call it "open-source, service-to-service data portability platform," which aims to allow you to easily move your data from one platform to the other

. you can directly transfer the data between participants to the oniline service. For example, if you want to quit Facebook and sign up for Twitter, the DTP tools will help you do that by deleting your existing social presence and transferring your data to the new service.

As it is about an open source code initiative (you can find the code on GitHub), technology giants expect other participants to join the platform and improve data portability. It will also benefit users if more and more service providers join.

Participants also published a research paper describing that OAP will support existing standards such as REST and OAuth where possible. The document also defines the security and confidentiality of user data as a fundamental principle of the data transfer project.