[philsnow]

Once upon a time within Google, there were people who were pushing for Takeout specifically for data portability. The thinking was, if they couldn't hold people's data hostage, they would be better incentivized to make their products the best on the market.

> they're well ahead of other companies

Agreed; it has never had a great UX but I'm glad it exists. I would like very much for it to be automate-able, as it is, it's pretty ADHD-hostile. I have to remember to start the process, remember to go get the files, and remember to deal with the files after they're done downloading (even on "gigabit fiber", it still takes long enough to force a context switch to something else and thus another opportunity to forget to deal with it).