Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter have announced a new standards initiative called the Data Transfer Project, which will let you move your content, contacts, and more across apps. In a blog post, Google described the project as letting users “transfer data directly from one service to another, without needing to download and re-upload it.” The DTP’s tool isn’t ready for use yet, but the group today laid out a white paper for how it will work. Although many companies already let you download your information, you can’t easily upload and use it elsewhere. You cannot port your digital identity with a new application. The current version of the system supports data transfer for photos, mail, contacts, calendars, and tasks, drawing from publicly available APIs from Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Flickr and Instagram. The existing code for the project is available open-source on…
