How to Download Your Data from Google, Facebook, and Other Big Tech

A practical walkthrough of the official data-export tools, what is actually inside, and what it is worth doing with the files

State of Surveillance

The Quick Read

Google, Facebook, Apple, and TikTok each ship a built-in tool that lets you export a copy of what they hold on you. They are buried in different places, behave differently, and only partially overlap. Google Takeout ships a 50 GB cap per file, expires in about seven days, and tops out at five downloads per archive.[1] Apple's "Get a copy of your data" portal at privacy.apple.com provides a structured copy, request-correction, deactivate, and delete tools.[2] Facebook's Download Your Information tool lets you pick HTML or JSON, and you get four days to fetch the archive.[3] TikTok's policy explicitly references "a 'Download your data' tool" you reach through in-app settings, with the file delivered "in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format."[4]

The files you receive are not the same shape as the data the company holds internally. They are a subset, formatted for you, and they exclude what the company has already decided is not yours to see.

Why this is worth the ten minutes

You do not need to be on a watchlist to care about your data archive. The same export that lets you back up a Gmail inbox you have been using for fifteen years also surfaces:

  • Every search query Google has kept under Web and App Activity, plus every place your phone has been logged to Location History.
  • Every ad Facebook metered you against and every advertiser that uploaded a contact list containing your email or phone.
  • Every TikTok watch, like, comment, and inferred demographic the platform has attached to your account.
  • Every Apple device signed in to your Apple ID and what it has downloaded, restored, or synced.

Looking at the actual file is the only way to know what a company has decided is "your" data, because every company's privacy policy describes categories in general terms and the export inventory is narrower than the policy language suggests. The difference matters when you try to delete, correct, or contest something in the file.

Google Takeout: the search-history export

Google Takeout's documentation lists the products it covers: "Email, Documents, Calendar, Photos, YouTube videos, Registration and account activity."[1] The full list is much longer than six items in practice, because the list expands by every Google service that participates.

How to run it:

  1. Sign in to any Google account at takeout.google.com. The page will redirect to myaccount.google.com if you are not yet signed in.
  2. Click "Deselect all" if you do not want every Google product. Then tick the boxes for the products you want. Drill into a product (for example, "YouTube") to choose partial selections.
  3. Click "Next step" to customize the archive. Pick delivery method: "Send download link via email," "Add to Drive," "Add to Dropbox," "Add to Microsoft OneDrive," or "Add to Box."[1] If you route to a third-party cloud, Google's documentation is explicit: "Once in Box/OneDrive, Google is no longer responsible, and the archive is governed by that provider's terms."[1]
  4. Pick export type. "One-time archive" gives a single export. "Scheduled exports" runs an automatic export "every 2 months for one year (first created immediately)" per Google's documentation.[1]
  5. Pick file type. "Zip files" open on almost any computer. "Tgz files" may require additional software on Windows.[1]
  6. Pick archive size. To minimize splitting across multiple archives, Google's documentation recommends the 50 GB size limit.[1]
  7. Submit. Google's documentation says processing "tak[es] minutes to days."[1]

What the archive contains depends on what you selected. A typical bundle covers, in addition to the obvious ones:

  • Mail in MBOX, with Gmail labels preserved in an X-Gmail-Labels header.[1]
  • Contacts as vCard.[1]
  • Calendar as ICS.
  • Photos and videos with original timestamps preserved in metadata; additional metadata goes to a secondary JSON file.[1]
  • Search history from Web and App Activity.
  • YouTube watch and search history.
  • Location History if you had it on.
  • Chrome browsing history is visible in My Activity but is not in Takeout by default; see the My Activity section.

Three hard limits Google's documentation calls out explicitly:

  • "Archives expire in about 7 days."[1]
  • "Each archive can be downloaded only 5 times."[1]
  • Workspace admins may restrict downloads.[1]

Translation: download the archive as soon as it arrives, copy it somewhere you control, and unzip it. If you forget, you have to regenerate.

Google My Activity: the search-and-browse history, with deletions

My Activity is the right place to look for what Google knows about your web use. Google's support page describes My Activity as the place where "you can find and delete your activity in the 'My Activity' section of your account."[5] The activity categories Google's page references are:

  • "Web and App Activity" including searches and websites visited (for example Chrome).[5]
  • "Location info" including device location and IP address.[5]
  • "Maps Timeline data" saved separately when Timeline is enabled.[5]
  • "General account history" under "History settings."[5]

Google's documentation flags one important retention rule: "location info about where your device is and your IP address are deleted from your Web and App Activity after 30 days."[5] That is, by default, your IP and precise location are gone from Web and App Activity after a month; other activity types have different windows.

Google's page lists the deletion options the portal exposes:

  • "Delete all activity" via the Delete menu, selecting "All time."[5]
  • "Delete one activity" by clicking Delete on a specific item.[5]
  • "Delete by date or product" using Calendar and Search filters.[5]
  • "Auto-delete" set under Data and privacy, History settings.[5]
  • "Delete activity in other places" via "Other activity" in the search bar.[5]
  • "Turn off and delete" which disables a setting and removes associated activity.[5]
  • "Delete browser activity" separately, because, as Google's page warns, "Your activity might be saved in your browser, even if you delete it from My Activity."[5]

One caveat Google flags itself: "Some Google products don't save activity in My Activity."[5] My Activity is not a complete record. Think of it as the user-facing slice.

Apple Data and Privacy: the device-and-iCloud export

Apple's privacy portal at privacy.apple.com is the central location for Apple data requests. Apple's published statement is: "we provide a set of dedicated privacy management tools on your Data and Privacy page. These tools give you the ability to get a copy of your data, request a correction to your data, deactivate your account, or delete your account."[2]

The portal groups the request into categories you can check or uncheck. The full set is shown on the portal itself when you sign in. Apple's privacy control page summarizes the four functional buttons: "get a copy of your data, request a correction to your data, deactivate your account, delete your account."[2]

How to run it:

  1. Sign in at privacy.apple.com with your Apple ID.
  2. Pick "Get a copy of your data."
  3. Check the categories you want. Apple lets you choose specific categories or pick the full set.
  4. Choose a maximum file size and submit.
  5. Wait for the archive. The exact preparation time and download window are shown on the portal when the archive is ready; Apple's privacy control page does not publish them as fixed values.[2]

The category list is broader in Apple's privacy policy than what the export hands you, which is the standard gap between policy and export.

Facebook Download Your Information: the social-graph export

Facebook's Download Your Information tool is the place to get a copy of the data the platform has on your account. Facebook's documentation describes the format options as: HTML is "an easy-to-open format of your information on Facebook. You receive a ZIP file that, after you open and extract it, contains an HTML file named Index"; JSON is "a machine-readable format of your information that lets you transfer it more easily, for example if you want to upload it to another service."[3]

Facebook's page tells you to set a "date range" when customizing the archive, and the same page notes "available information includes content and information you've shared, your activity, and information we collect," with a separate linked page listing the exportable categories.[3] The Facebook help article on the linked page enumerates a long list of categories, which spans the social surface and the advertising surface. Two pieces of context that make the export worth understanding:

  • The archive includes the third-party data Facebook has collected about you through apps and websites you have connected to your Facebook account, not only what you posted on Facebook itself.
  • The archive also includes the advertisers that uploaded a contact list containing your email or phone, and the ads you have interacted with. This is the off-Facebook activity surface, accessible separately through Settings and then "Your Facebook Information" and "Off-Facebook activity."

How to run it:

  1. Open Facebook, click the down arrow at the top right, then "Settings and privacy" and "Settings."
  2. Pick "Your Facebook Information."
  3. Pick "Download Your Information."
  4. Pick a date range or the full account life.
  5. Pick HTML or JSON.
  6. Pick media quality (the photo resolution in the archive).
  7. Submit. Facebook's documentation says you have "four days" to download once the archive is ready, and downloads are password-protected.[3]

Facebook archives are not the same thing as the off-Facebook activity report. Off-Facebook activity is the data Facebook collects about you from sites and apps outside Facebook, and it lives in a separate section. To download it, go to Settings and then "Your Facebook Information" and "Off-Facebook activity," then "Download" or "Clear history." The two downloads together give you a fuller picture of what Facebook has tied to your account.

TikTok: the entertainment-graph export

TikTok's privacy policy lists the categories of information the platform stores, in three groups: information you provide (account information, user content, messages, contacts and connections, purchase information, survey and promotion responses, contact communications), information TikTok collects automatically (technical information, location information, usage information, content characteristics and features, inferred information, cookies and tracking data), and information from other sources (advertising, measurement, and partner data, seller and payment provider data, third-party platform data, public sources and government authorities).[4]

The policy is explicit that the user-facing download tool exists: "request a copy of your information by using the 'Download your data' tool."[4] The policy links the tool to TikTok's support page on requesting your data. The policy also says the data is provided "in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format," which is GDPR Article 20's portability language.[4]

TikTok's policy lists the broader data the platform retains, which is more than the user-facing download exposes:

  • Account Information: date of birth, username, email, phone, password, bio, image.[4]
  • User Content: photos, videos, audio, livestreams, comments, hashtags, metadata.[4]
  • Technical Information: device model, operating system, IP address, system language, keystroke rhythms.[4]
  • Location Information: approximate or precise.[4]
  • Usage Information: engagement metrics, search history, in-app browser activity.[4]
  • Content Characteristics and Features: object, scenery, and face detection, spoken text.[4]
  • Inferred Information: age-range, gender, interests.[4]

How to run it:

  1. Open TikTok and go to your profile.
  2. Tap the menu button, then "Settings and privacy."
  3. Tap "Account" or "Privacy," then look for "Download your data" or "Download a copy of your data."
  4. Pick the categories you want. The labels vary by app version but track TikTok's privacy policy categories.
  5. Submit. TikTok notifies you when the archive is ready.
  6. Download within the window TikTok gives you.

What the files do not include

Every company's export is narrower than the company's privacy policy. The categories you can request are the user-facing slice. What is consistently excluded from the user-facing export:

  • Internal ad-targeting scores, audience-segment memberships, and lookalike-model inputs. Advertisers can upload a contact list containing your email, but the file does not include the score the platform attached to your profile.
  • Inference data. TikTok's privacy policy describes "Inferred Information: age-range, gender, interests."[4] The user-facing download exposes the inputs (your activity) but typically not the inferred outputs.
  • What the company shares with law enforcement. The export is about your data, not the company's downstream distribution.
  • What the company holds for legal reasons. Google's documentation flags that "Google may retain certain types of data for an extended period of time" for legal or business reasons.[5]
  • What the company has deleted. Not yours to download if it has been deleted already.
  • The data the company has on you that is not tied to your account. Google's documentation explicitly says "Your activity might be saved in your browser, even if you delete it from My Activity."[5]

The export is the data the company has chosen to show you. Treat it as that, and not as a complete dossier.

What to do with the archive

You have four honest uses for the archive.

  1. Audit. Open the file and look. The first time you see your actual search history, location timeline, or ad-interaction log is a useful moment. From there, the most common next steps are deleting categories you do not want kept, switching an auto-delete rule to a fixed retention, and turning off precise location in apps you had not thought about.
  2. Back up what you cannot replace. Google Takeout, Apple Data and Privacy, and the Facebook download are the only first-party way to get a copy of the data tied to that account. If you lose access, the archive is what you keep.
  3. Port. If you are moving from Google Photos to iCloud, from Facebook to a different platform, or from one Apple ID to a third, the export is the data you carry. Google's documentation is explicit that the Takeout archive is created "to keep your records or transfer your data to another service."[1]
  4. Dispute. If something in the file is wrong, Apple's "request a correction to your data" tool is the way to challenge it.[2] Google's documentation lists the deletion options as the official correction channel.

The honest limit of self-service

The data-portability tools are real and worth using. They are also the minimum a company has to ship to comply with GDPR Article 20 and California's right to access. They are not the same as a complete record, and they are not designed to surface the data the company finds most valuable.

If you are doing a routine check-in with your own data, the four tools above are enough. If you are trying to verify what a company has decided about you, the four tools together are a starting point. If you have a specific dispute, the deletion and correction tools are the channel.

The same ten minutes that gets you a copy of what Google has on you returns what you gave the company when you signed up. Most readers do it once. The readers who do it every year tend to use it as a yearly reset.

Related Coverage

Sources

  1. Google Account Help, "Download your data" (Takeout)
  2. Apple Privacy, "Data and Privacy page" (privacy.apple.com)
  3. Facebook Help Center, "How do I download a copy of my Facebook data?"
  4. TikTok Privacy Policy (Download your data tool)
  5. Google Account Help, "Find & delete your activity" (My Activity)

Published: October 7, 2026. Last updated: October 7, 2026.