Meta’s Download your information
One unified download flow for Facebook and Instagram. Full regulatory compliance, without the complexity.
One place to download your data from every linked Meta profile.
My role
Design Lead & Research
End-to-end flow, data structure & user research
Timeline
5 months
From exploration to launch
Platforms
Mobile & desktop
iOS, Android, mobile web & desktop
Collaboration
Cross-functional
Content Design, Product, Engineering, Legal & Policy
AT A GLANCE
Same need.
Different starting points.
As Meta moved to a connected app model, people needed one place to download data from all their linked products. GDPR and CCPA require that access, and some settings were legally required to be centralized.
But the existing tools pulled in opposite directions. Facebook offered individual data types, as regulators demanded. Instagram offered one click, having faced less regulatory pressure.
WHO IT’S FOR
The curious
Wants to see what Facebook and Instagram have stored about them.
The departing
Wants to deactivate Facebook, but keep their memories.
The locked out
Has a disabled profile and wants their data in case it isn’t restored.
THE GOAL
Help people find an answer, know if it applies to them, and take action, building trust along the way.
THE CONSTRAINTS
Legal & policy review across 12 markets | Controls owned by different app teams | Three months. Four platforms.
Key decisions
One shared entry point, with each profile’s data kept separate.
Decision 01
Co-locate.
Don’t consolidate.
We could merge every profile’s data into one unit, or bring profiles together in one place while keeping their data separate.
I made the case for co-location. Research showed people think about their data profile by profile. It met the project’s needs without a company-wide rewrite or a change to data policy.
A unified experience doesn’t have to mean merged data.
Card sorting and testing shaped a structure that worked across apps.
Decision 02
One structure.
Every app.
An audit showed some apps nested data types under categories, while others simply listed them.
I led card sorting and testing to find a structure that worked with each app’s existing data, scaled, and made sense to people. App teams across the company adopted it.
People never have to relearn where things live as they move between apps.
Three clear paths, with a lightweight progress indicator that adapts to each choice.
Decision 03
Smart defaults.
Full control.
Regulators required access to all data, but most people only wanted their photos and posts.
I designed three paths: Your media, selected by default; All information, for everything at once; and Select types of information, for granular control per profile.
A line indicator replaced step counts, because each choice changes the length of the flow.
Clear expectations while files are prepared, and a notification when they’re ready.
Decision 04
Design for
the wait.
Files can take a few minutes to a few days to prepare — about an hour on average. That was a technical constraint we couldn’t remove.
The flow sets expectations up front and notifies people the moment their file is ready.
Make the wait understandable, even when you can’t make it disappear.
THE FINAL EXPERIENCE
Explain.
Then act.
Request → profiles → information → file options.
Shared access, separate profiles. People choose precisely what to include.
THE IMPACT
Less friction.
More follow-through.
Full
regulatory compliance, with minimal impact on core metrics
Double-digit
lift in task completion
3 → 1
surfaces to maintain, reducing engineering overhead
Less friction
A major reduction in friction for people with multiple accounts.
Company-wide adoption
One data structure adopted by app teams across the company.
High satisfaction
People consistently rated the experience easy to use in post-launch surveys.
REFLECTION
A download isn’t
the finish line.
An alternative to local downloads: transfer data directly to another service.
After launch, some people requested a download but never returned for it. People on shared devices or in internet cafes, especially in emerging markets, often couldn’t download or store a file at all.
We’d designed around our organization structure. I pushed to integrate an existing transfer tool so people could send their data straight to services like Google Drive. The work was adopted, the products later merged, and completion rose significantly.
Treat limited-access conditions as a starting constraint, not an edge case.