Calling for new global standards on data sharing and data portability, Facebook published a white paper highlighting key concerns related to implementing data portability. Readers should note that, in the past, Facebook has used portability tools such as Download Your Information, and has been part of industry coalitions such as Data Transfer Project along with Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and Apple. The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enforced data portability in 2018, where it made data portability a right under which the “the data subject shall have the right to receive the personal data concerning him or her, which he or she has provided to a controller, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from the controller to which the personal data have been provided”. Note that data portability is also being considered in India and was a part of the draft Data Protection Bill, but didn't talk about transferring user data from one data fiduciary to another. Why is data portability important? Data portability is important because allows users greater control over their data, and attempts to encourage greater competition among companies that aren’t necessarily Big Tech. "Portability is brought up in the context of unlocking competition. One of the barriers to switching services is that pre-existing data is locked into the service you have been using. It fits into a data protection law because it is an expression of your control over your…
