# Google Takeout

Google Takeout, also known as Download Your Data, is a project by the Google Data Liberation Front that allows users of Google products, such as YouTube and Gmail, to export their data to a downloadable archive file.

## Usage

Users can select different services from the list of options provided. As of 24 March 2016, the services that can be exported are as follows:
* Google+ +1s, Circles, Pages, Streams and posts
* Chrome Sync bookmarks
* Google Calendar appointments
* Google Contacts
* Google Drive files
* Google Fit
* Google Photos
* Google News
* Google Play Store
* Google Play Console
* Google Play Movies
* Google Play Music
* Google Play Games
* Google Play Books metadata and notes
* Google Groups
* Google Hangouts
* Google Hangouts On Air
* Google Keep
* Google Stadia
* Google Tasks
* Google Location History
* Gmail data
* Google Maps My Maps, saved places and reviews
* Google Profile
* Android Device Configuration Service
* Google Home App
* Input Tools
* Classic Sites
* Google Voice billing history, greetings and voicemail recordings
* Google Wallet
* YouTube videos, subscriptions, chats, own comments, playlists, history, live chat messages
* Google Pay
* Search Contributions
* Data Shared For Research
* Shopping Lists
* Textcube
* Google Home
* Bookmarks
* Hands Free
* Street View
The user can select to export all of the available services or choose services from the above list. Takeout will then prompt the user to select file type, frequency, and destination, and proceed to process the request and put all the files into an archive file. Takeout additionally sends an email notification when the export is completed, at which point the user can download the archive from the downloads section of the website. The archive file contains a separate folder for each service that was selected for export.

## History

Google Takeout was created by the Google Data Liberation Front 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 Google Voice 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 Gmail and Google Calendar data.
They have added specialized transfer capabilities for Google Photos, allowing transfer of all media from Google Photos to Apple – iCloud Photos, Flickr, Microsoft One Drive and SmugMug.

## Criticism

Google does not delete user data automatically after exporting; they provide a separate service to perform deletion. There is no way to delete a Takeout export until it expires after 7 days.
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 (after 7 days), in essence "trapping" users with large data and slow bandwidth in Google's services.
Earlier criticisms were raised that Google Takeout did not allow users to export from some core Google services, most notably Google Search history and Google Wallet details. Google has since expanded the service to include search history and Wallet details (September 2016). Google has also added Google Hangouts to the Takeout service.