If you use Google Voice to manage your phone-life, we’ve got some good news: your data -- from call history, to voicemail (including transcripts!), to greetings and recordings -- is now available in Google Takeout. Starting today, you can download a copy of all your voice communications along with data from other products with one click. Voicemail messages and greetings are exported as mp3s, text messages as microformatted html, and forwarding phone numbers as a vcard.

Give it a shot, either with all your Google Takeout data, or by itself.

One more product liberated - and many more to go!

Posted by Brian Fitzpatrick, The Data Liberation Front

We're happy to announce a new open source application that allows you to import and export your Google Tasks, called Google Tasks Porter.

Google Tasks Porter is designed with other applications that contain task lists in mind. It supports import and export via the iCalendar format which is used by a variety of applications, including iCalendar itself. It also supports import and export to Microsoft Outlook via a CSV format. Additionally, Google Tasks Porter supports export from Remember the Milk using its iCalendar export, and import to Remember the Milk via email. You can also download a list of all your tasks in an HTML format which is designed to be portable and parseable.

Google Tasks Porter allows you to create a set of "snapshots" of your data, each representing a list of all your tasks at a particular point in time. You can then save or delete these snapshots, and you can export a snapshot at any time to another application using any of the available formats. You can also upload an ics or csv file in order to import the tasks contained therein into Google Tasks.

The application is available on the web at http://google-tasks-porter.appspot.com. The source code is also available on Google Code at http://google-tasks-porter.googlecode.com using the Apache License, Version 2.0. Please try the application out and let us know what you think. You can provide feedback via the mailing list at google-tasks-porter@googlegroups.com.

By Dwight Guth, The Data Liberation Front

When we started the Data Liberation Front in 2007, we encouraged everyone to ask three questions about the products they were using:

1. Can I get my data out at all?
2. How much is it going to cost to get my data out?
3. How much of my time is it going to take to get my data out?

But we forgot an important detail: the ability to do something useful with the data once you take it out. With that in mind, we’ve modified our first question to emphasize the importance of being able to download your data in an open, interoperable, portable format:

1. Can I get my data out in an open, interoperable, portable format?
2. How much is it going to cost to get my data out?
3. How much of my time is it going to take to get my data out?

What we mean by open, interoperable and portable is that your data should be exported in a format that is:

• Publicly documented and non-proprietary (i.e. it does not require a commercial license to use)
• Easy for engineers to write a program that can import the data into another system

Your data isn’t really liberated unless you can put it to use somewhere else. Making sure you can do that when you liberate from Google products is now officially part of our mission.

Posted by Brian Fitzpatrick, The Data Liberation Front

Two and a half weeks ago, we launched Google Takeout, and the response has been overwhelming: you want more data in Google Takeout! Well, we’ve heard you, and have a little more data to tide you over for now: Takeout now includes a list of the websites that you’ve +1’ed.

We’ve still got plenty more data to liberate -- including +1’s on stream posts and comments -- but we just wanted to give you a quick update.

Posted by Brian Fitzpatrick, The Data Liberation Front

Since we began in 2007, the Data Liberation Front has been focused on one thing: making it easier for you to take your data in and out of Google. Our first step was to make it easier to get your data out of our products, one product at a time. While we’ve made great progress on this front, we’ve been on the lookout for even better ways to let you take your data out of Google.

Today we’re pleased to announce the Data Liberation Front’s first revolutionary product: Google Takeout.

Google Takeout lets you take your data out of multiple Google products in one fell swoop. Moreover, you’ll find that all your data is in portable and open formats‚ so it’s easy to import to other services quickly.

Today, we’re launching with five products:


These are just the beginning: we will be adding more Google products as time goes on, so stay tuned. For now, check out the settings menu in Google+ or visit google.com/takeout to give Takeout a try.

Posted by Brian Fitzpatrick, The Data Liberation Front

This week Google Alerts joins the expanding group of liberated Google products by launching a feature that allows you to export your alerts. You can now access all the data about your alerts (search terms, type, etc.) in CSV format.

To try it out:

1. Head on over to Google Alerts


2. Sign in


3. Follow the link to the management page


4. Click the "Export alerts" link, you will find it above the list of your alerts, on the right-hand side

If you don’t have a Google account, you will have to either create a Google account for your email address, or add the email address to an existing Google account.

Enjoy your cage-free data!

Posted by Robert Leland, Google Alerts team

After talking about Data Liberation on This Week in Google, we've gotten a lot of requests for Data Liberation stickers. Well, if you want to become a member of the Data Liberation cooperative, we've got eggzactly what you're looking for, so to find out how to get a sticker, read on!



Our stickers are gorgeous full-color 3" x 5" vinyl stickers that look just as good on a laptop as they do on an egg carton, and if you'd like to get one, just send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

The Data Liberation Front
c/o Google
20 W. Kinzie, Floor 9
Chicago, IL 60610

Our lawyers told us that, unfortunately, we can't ship these stickers outside of the United States. Also, we won't be collecting your addresses for any purpose whatsoever--they're going right into the shredder for use as bedding in the henhouse!

The only thing that you need to send us is a self-addressed stamped envelope. If you're so inclined (and this is completely optional), drop in a postcard from your city and we'll add it to the collage on the wall of our barn (and we'll post pictures of it from time to time).

Of course--and this is also completely optional--we'd love to see the stickers in action, so once you get the sticker, please send a tweet to @dataliberation with a picture of the sticker at its new home--like this:



And lastly, no chickens were harmed in the production of these stickers. (although we did have a few nice omelets with hash browns. Mmmmm.... hash browns....)

Posted by Brian Fitzpatrick, The Data Liberation Front