This post is a basic compilation on how to get your personal data from different social networks and web services. The reason to write it is for myself, as I usually make a backup of that data once or twice per year. So having all the steps in a single post is useful. I hope it is useful for others too.
The services here are the ones I use. My plan is to update the post with new instructions if they change, or with new services I use (and the other way around, I’ll drop the services that I don’t use anymore).
GitHub
This service also provides a way to export our data:
- Go to “Settings/Account”, and in “Export account data” section, click on “Start export”.
It will take some minutes to provide the data. The link to download it will be sent through an email.
Goodreads
To get a copy of your Goodreads data:
- Go to “Account settings”, and “Settings” tab.
- In the Privacy section, click on “Submit a dowload request”.
- Now click on “Submit request”.
Again, a link with to download the data will be submitted to your email.
Google allows to export everything you have (GMail, YouTube, etc). Note that this could be a lot of data.
- Go to your account.
- Go to “Data & privacy”.
- Scroll down until “Download your data”.
- Finally select “Create archive”.
Now you can control which data you want to export (by default data from all Google services). Once you know which data you want to export, press “Next”. Now, you can select the destination file type, the size (data will be split in files with that size as much), and where the file is put (by default a link is emailed to download it). We just use default options, and press “Create archive”. Now just wait until the you get it.
Gravatar
This services offers an option to export data.
Just go to “Export Data” option and click on “Send me my data”.
LastFM
Unfortunately, they removed the option it had to export data. So we need to use an external application to export, at least, part of the user data.
There’s a python script, lastexport.py, in https://gist.github.com/bitmorse/5201491
Download it.
Run as
python lastexport.py -u <username> -o <output> [-t <type>]
By default it exports scrobbles, but we can change setting
Libravatar
It is very easy to download the data.
Once logged in, click on “Download your libravatar data” on the main menu. It will expose your data as compressed XML file.
Fortunately, this service provides a way to export all your data.
- Go to “Settings & Privacy”
- In “Data privacy”, select “Get a copy of your data”.
Select what to download, and press “Request archive”. An email will be sent with the link to download the data.
Mastodon
This service allows to download your datra too.
- Click on “Preferences”.
- Then click on “Import and export”, which by default selects “Data export”.
- In the right side, you can request a file with your data.
SlideShare
Go to your Account, and select Export.
It provides two downlads: a JSON with your account data, and another to download a CSV with links to all the documents and presentations.
Another service that provides an easy way to export all your data.
- Go to account “Settings”
- Select “Request your archive” in “Account”
An email will be sent with a link to download the file.
Xiaomi
Another service that provides a way to download your data.
- Go to your Xiaomi Account
- In the “Privacy” section, click on “Manage your data”
It provides different options to download your data. It takes time to get data ready (even some days or weeks), but a link with the data will be submitted to your email.