This report about the latest feature of Instagram comes amid concerns about the privacy of users’ data on social media platforms. “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, ” an Instagram spokesman told TechCrunch. Instagram’s parent company, Facebook has been allowing its users to download their data including photos, messages, clicked advertisements and a log of all their activity since at least 2010. Instagram, on the other hand, has lacked any such features, making it very difficult to export your data from the service. Unlike Facebook, Instagram users can’t drag or tap and hold on images to save them and they can’t download images they have already posted. Facebook launched its Download Your Data tool just six years after launch.
According to reports, users will soon find an option on Instagram that will allow them to download our images and videos. It is still not clear whether users will only be able to download the photos, videos, and messages or they will also be able to export the following and follower lists, Likes, comments, Stories, and the captions with posts. It’s also not clear whether photos and videos will export in the full quality or they’ll be compressed. “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,” the spokesperson further added. In another news, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has answered questions of US lawmakers about Facebook data privacy in the wake of last month’s revelation that several millions of Facebook users’ data were misused from the platform by an American firm Cambridge Analytica.
