Your data is yours. Let's go get it.

Every major platform is required to hand over a copy of the data it keeps about you. Most people never ask. This is the heart of the MyChoice alpha. Your data stays yours — we do not share or sell your personal data with anybody. This is about empowering you.

1
Request everything

Request a full export in JSON format, and where there's a media-quality option, choose the lowest — your photos and videos aren't needed for insight, and the data can get large.

2
Platforms take their time

Minutes for some, up to a few days for others. While this is changing as more people demand their own data, expect your first request to take upwards of 24–48 hours to arrive.

3
Don't unzip anything

MyChoice reads the zip exactly as the platform delivers it. Just save the file(s) somewhere you can find them.

Privacy note — same promise as everywhere else on this site: your export may contain far more than MyChoice uses. MyChoice extracts only data about how you use the platform — activity, timing, and interest data — never your private messages, photos, or anything else.

YouTube & Google — via Google Takeout

Time to arrive: usually under an hour; large accounts can take longer.

  1. Go to takeout.google.com (sign in as the person whose data this is).
  2. Leave everything selected, but uncheck Google Photos and Drive — that's where the gigabytes live, and MyChoice doesn't use them.
  3. Scroll down → Next step. Delivery: "Send download link via email" is fine. File type .zip, size 4 GB (larger splits are OK too).
  4. Important: where a format choice exists (YouTube history has one), choose JSON, not HTML.
  5. When the email arrives, download the zip(s). Done.
Google Takeout: Select data to include screen

Step 2 — the "Select data to include" screen

YouTube options: history set to JSON format

Step 4 — YouTube options: history → JSON

Instagram & Facebook — via Meta Accounts Center

Time to arrive: a few hours to ~2 days.

  1. On Instagram or Facebook: Settings → Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Download your information.
  2. Choose Download or transfer information → select the account(s) → All available information.
  3. Set: format JSON · media quality Low (Medium is fine too) · date range All time.
  4. Destination: "Download to device" is simplest. (Power move we use ourselves: Meta can also deliver straight to your Google Drive, and can even re-export on a schedule — not needed for the alpha.)
  5. You'll get an email/notification when it's ready — download the zip(s).
Meta Accounts Center: Confirm your export screen with All time, JSON selected

The confirm screen should look like this before you tap Start export

TikTok

Time to arrive: usually within a day.

  1. In the TikTok app: Profile → Menu (☰) → Settings and privacy → Account → Download your data.
  2. Choose All data and file format JSON — not TXT.
  3. Come back to the same screen when notified and download the zip. TikTok download links expire after a few days, so don't sit on it.
TikTok Download your data screen: JSON format, all data selected

JSON selected, everything checked — then Request data

Check the size. A healthy TikTok export is at least a few hundred KB. If your zip is tiny (under ~50 KB), the export didn't capture your activity — request it again. (We learned this the hard way with our own.)

When your files arrive

Keep the zips exactly as downloaded and bring them to MyChoice. That's it — no unzipping, no renaming, no picking files out. MyChoice finds what it understands, shows you what it read, and ignores the rest.

Where to keep them: anywhere you'll find them again — Downloads is fine. If you want a tidy habit, one folder per family member ("Dad's data", "Mom's data") saves confusion later, since every platform names its files cryptically.

If something looks wrong