Google Takeout, also known as Download Your Data, is a project by the

Google Data Liberation Front The Google Data Liberation Front is an engineering team at Google whose "goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products." The team, which consults with other engineering teams within Google on how to "liberat ...

that allows users of

Google products Google Shopping, formerly Google Product Search, Google Products and Froogle, is a Google service created by Craig Nevill-Manning which allows users to search for products on online shopping websites and compare prices between different vendors ...

, such as

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

Gmail Gmail is a free email service provided by Google. As of 2019, it had 1.5 billion active users worldwide. A user typically accesses Gmail in a web browser or the official mobile app. Google also supports the use of email clients via the POP an ...

, to export their data to a downloadable

archive file In computing, an archive file is a computer file that is composed of one or more files along with metadata. Archive files are used to collect multiple data files together into a single file for easier portability and storage, or simply to compress ...

Usage

Users can select different services from the list of options provided. , the services that can be exported are as follows: *

Google+ Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

+1s, Circles, Pages, Streams and posts * Chrome Sync bookmarks *

Google Calendar Google Calendar is a time-management and scheduling calendar service developed by Google. It became available in beta release April 13, 2006, and in general release in July 2009, on the web and as mobile apps for the Android and iOS platforms. ...

appointments *

Google Contacts Google Contacts is a contact management service developed by Google. It is available as an Android mobile app, a web app, or on the sidebar of Gmail as part of Google Workspace. History Google Contacts originated as the built-in contacts man ...

Google Drive Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud (on Google's servers), synchronize files across devices, and share files. In addi ...

files *

Google Fit Google Fit is a health-tracking platform developed by Google for the Android operating system, Wear OS and Apple Inc.'s iOS. It is a single set of APIs that blends data from multiple apps and devices. Google Fit uses sensors in a user's activ ...

Google Photos Google Photos is a photo sharing and storage service developed by Google. It was announced in May 2015 and spun off from Google+, the company's former social network. As of June 1, 2021, in its free tier, any newly uploaded photo and video c ...

Google News Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google rel ...

Google Play Store Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sys ...

* Google Play Console *

Google Play Movies Google TV (formerly known as Google Play Movies & TV) is an online video on demand service operated by Google. The service offers movies and television shows for purchase or rental, depending on availability. The service initially launched in Ma ...

Google Play Music Google Play Music is a discontinued music and podcast streaming service and an online music locker operated by Google as part of its Google Play line of services. The service was announced on May 10, 2011; after a six-month, invitation-only be ...

Google Play Games Google Play Games is a multi-platform gaming experience built and operated by Google featuring seamless gameplay across PCs, Chromebooks and mobile devices. Google Play Games for PC Beta launched in 2022 with a curated set of Android games opti ...

Google Play Books Google Play Books, formerly Google eBooks, is an ebook digital distribution service operated by Google, part of its Google Play product line. Users can purchase and download ebooks and audiobooks from Google Play, which offers over five millio ...

metadata and notes *

Google Groups Google Groups is a service from Google that provides discussion groups for people sharing common interests. The Groups service also provides a gateway to Usenet newsgroups via a shared user interface. Google Groups became operational in February ...

Google Hangouts Google Hangouts is a discontinued cross-platform instant messaging service developed by Google. It originally was a feature of Google+, becoming a standalone product in 2013, when Google also began integrating features from Google+ Messenger an ...

* Google Hangouts On Air *

Google Keep Google Keep is a note-taking service included as part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google. The service also includes: Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Drawings, Google Forms and Google Sites. Googl ...

Google Stadia Stadia is a cloud gaming service developed and operated by Google. Known in development as Project Stream, the service debuted through a closed beta in October 2018, and publicly launched in November 2019. The service was to compete with Sony' ...

Google Tasks Google Tasks is a task management application developed by Google and included with Google Workspace. Included initially as a feature in Gmail and Google Calendar, Google Tasks launched as a core product with a standalone app in 2018. It is avai ...

* Google Location History *

data *

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

My Maps, saved places and reviews *

Google Profile A Google Account is a user account that is required for access, authentication and authorization to certain online Google services. It is also often used as single sign on for third party services. Usage A Google Account is required for Gmail, ...

* Android Device Configuration Service * Google Home App * Input Tools * Classic Sites *

Google Voice Google Voice is a telephone service that provides a U.S. phone number to Google Account customers in the U.S. and Google Workspace (G Suite by October 2020) customers in Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switz ...

billing history, greetings and voicemail recordings *

Google Wallet Google Wallet (or simply Wallet) is a digital wallet platform developed by Google. It is available for the Android, Wear OS, and Fitbit OS operating systems, and was announced on May 11, 2022, at the 2022 Google I/O keynote. It began rollin ...

videos, subscriptions, chats, own comments, playlists, history, live chat messages *

Google Pay Google Pay may refer to: * Google Pay (mobile app), a mobile payments app introduced in 2020 * Google Pay (2018–2022), a digital wallet app introduced in 2018, now Google Wallet * Google Pay (payment method), a digital payments service introduced ...

* Search Contributions * Data Shared For Research * Shopping Lists * Textcube * Google Home * Bookmarks * Hands Free *

Street View Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expan ...

The user can select to export all of the available services or choose services from the above list. Takeout will then process the request and put all the files into a zip file. Takeout then optionally sends an email notification that the export is completed, at which point the user can download the archive from the downloads section of the website. The zip file contains a separate folder for each service that was selected for export.

History

Google Takeout was created by the

on June 28, 2011 to allow users to export their data from most of Google's services. Since its creation, Google has added several more services to Takeout due to popular demand from users. Takeout started with exports of only Google Buzz, Google Contacts, Google Profile, Google Streams, and Picasa Albums. The next month, on July 15, 2011, Google added the export of Google +1's to the list after it was frequently requested by Takeout's users. Later in 2011 on September 6, Google added

to their export service. A big milestone was the addition of YouTube video exports to Takeout next year on September 26, 2012. Google took another big step with the addition of Blogger posts and Google+ pages on February 17, 2013. On December 5, 2013, Google Takeout was further expanded to include

and

data.

Criticism

Earlier criticisms were raised that Google Takeout did not allow users to export from some core Google services, most notably

Google Search Google Search (also known simply as Google) is a search engine provided by Google. Handling more than 3.5 billion searches per day, it has a 92% share of the global search engine market. It is also the most-visited website in the world. The ...

history and

details. Google has since expanded the service to include search history and Wallet details (September 2016). Google has also added

to the Takeout service. Google also does not delete user data automatically after exporting, they provide a separate service to perform deletion. Google Takeout has also been criticized for keeping the takeout data available for too short a time for many users with large files to easily download everything before the batch expires, in essence "trapping" users with large data and slow bandwidth in Google's services.

References

{{Google Inc.

Takeout A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...

Internet properties established in 2011