Instagram to soon allow you to download your own data

Instagram has revealed plans of allowing users to download a copy of their data, according to a report by Techcrunch. An Instagram spokesperson responded to Techcrunch after the latter published an article about the lack of data portability on the service.

The details of this feature are yet to be finalized and Instagram did not go into any detail at the moment. We don't know to what extent would the company allow backing up the user data, whether it will be limited to simply letting users download all the photos and videos they have uploaded so far or will they also be getting a backup of all the Stories they have archived and all the messages they have sent.

Facebook has had a comprehensive backup facility for many years now, so it's rather disappointing it took Instagram this long to do it. It's no doubt that the move has come as a response to the growing distrust for the company among users, many of which are no doubt looking to take their data elsewhere, or at least away from Facebook. So far Instagram locked all the information uploaded to it, with no easy way to download any of it back. Some third-party services exist which allow you to do it, but the trustworthiness of these services is always a suspect.

Fortunately, no one would have to use these service once Instagram rolls out the feature natively. When exactly that is supposed to happen is as of yet unknown.

Source