Apple joins Google, Microsoft on project to make your data portable

The Data Transfer Project is trying to make it easier to move data between online services.

BY CARRIE MIHALCIK JULY 30, 2019

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-joins-google-microsoft-on-project-to-make-your-data-portable/

Apple is teaming up with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter on a project to build an easier way for people to transfer data into and out of online services. The iPhone maker has officially joined the Data Transfer Project, or DTP, a collaboration that launched in July 2018.

The DTP is working to build a "common framework with open-source code" that can connect any two online services and let users seamlessly transfer data between the platforms, according to the project's website. It uses platforms' existing APIs and authorization methods to access data, then transfers it into a common format. So far, contributors from partners and the open-source community have inserted more than 42,000 lines of code and changed more than 1,500 files, according to the group.

The project is still in "very active development," but you can follow along on GitHub. Tech-savvy folks can also try it out via Docker and Code. Instructions on the DTP site note that you'll need API keys from the services you want to transfer data between.

For more about this directly from Apple, here is their website about the project: https://datatransferproject.dev/