Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter are teaming up to form an open source initiative called Data Transfer Project (DTP). It will allow millions of users to transfer their data between the online services platforms without uploading or downloading it into devices. As the project is open source based, the open source code is provided in the Github with whitepapers which explain the project briefly so that other companies can also implement it in their services. The project consists of adapters which help proprietary APIs to transfer data to one another and share data between services. The data is encrypted while transferring between various platforms. The system supports data transfer for mail, contacts, calendars, photos, and tasks using publicly available APIs from Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Instagram and other services.  

The customers will be benefitted from the project because of the improved flexibility and control over their data. “Customers can move their data to any participating service that offers fascinating features and powerful cloud-based infrastructure rather than the consumers’ potentially limited bandwidth and capability to transfer files,” explained Brian Willard, Software Engineer and Greg Fair, Product Manager at Google.

Steve Satterfield, Privacy and Policy Director at Facebook, notified few problems in a blog that could be faced by the DTP. Transferring of data between services can be complex because they are based on different platforms and use different data that may require unique private controls and setting. For example, we might use an app where we share photos, a social networking app where we share updates with friends, and a fitness app for tracking workouts. People are gradually transferring data among different kinds of services like these, and expecting companies to protect their data.

Craig Shank, Vice President for Corporate Standards at Microsoft said the Data Transfer Project partners believe "portability and interoperability are central to cloud innovation and competition" and asked other companies in the industry to join this initiative.