“We are building a new data portability tool. You’ll soon be able to download a copy of what you’ve shared on Instagram, including your photos, videos and messages.”

That’s according to an Instagram spokesperson who spoke to TechCrunch, after the publisher “knocked the app for the absence of an equivalent to Facebook’s Download Your Information tool”:

Instagram has historically made it very difficult to export your data. You can’t drag, or tap and hold on images to save them. And you can’t download images you’ve already posted.

That’s despite Instagram now being almost 8 years old and having over 800 million users. For comparison, Facebook launched its Download Your Information tool in 2010, just six years after launch.

So what does “equivalent to Facebook’s Download Your Information tool” even mean? Well, just like you were able to tell that Facebook was logging your private phone calls with your mother-in-law, the new Instagram tool will make it much easier for users to, well, leave Instagram.

Har har har.

Kidding. (Not kidding). Rather, there hasn’t been any verification on what exactly you will be able to download, or in what format:

We’re awaiting more info on whether you’ll only be able to download your photos, videos, and messages; or if you’ll also be able to export your following and follower lists, Likes, comments, Stories, and the captions you share with posts.

It’s also unclear whether photos and videos will export in the full fidelity that they’re uploaded or displayed in, or whether they’ll be compressed. Instagram told me “we’ll share more details very soon when we actually launch the tool. But at a high level it allows you to download and export what you have shared on Instagram” so we’ll have to wait for more clarity.

In order to comply with the upcoming European GDPR privacy law that requires data portability, the tool should launch before May 25.

And then we could be downloading compressed versions of our Instagram accounts.

Maybe. No one knows.

[source:techcrunch]