Recently, I’ve wondered whether there’s a better way to backup one’s Facebook data than Facebook’s proprietary “My Archive” service. While functional, the no-frills HTML archive is unwieldy and bloated. Messages aren’t separated by conversation; rather, all messages sent to or from your account are listed in the order they were sent. “Likes” on comments and photos aren’t displayed. Pages or groups that you’ve “liked” are not hyperlinked. Worst of all, navigation is near-impossible, with your entire news feed (from the beginning of time) displayed all at once, on the same page. Finally, with Facebook’s backup, you get everything. You can’t, say, only backup your messages. For those with many photos or videos, expect a long processing time and a large, tedious download (my file took a day to process and was over a gigabyte).
There must be a better way, I thought. Enter SocialSafe. SocialSafe is a dynamic backup solution that pulls your data from Facebook at regular intervals and creates a comprehensive, easy-to-browse backup on your computer. Marketed as “a beautiful way to treasure your online social life,” SocialSafe was launched in 2009 and has steadily added social networks to its scope (it currently can create backups of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, and Viadeo). It’s available for Mac and PC in four tiers: Free, Standard ($3.99/year), Pro ($6.99/year), and Enterprise ($13.99/year). I purchased the Pro version last year and have been using it ever since.
After clicking through the initial “Allow Access” dialog box, SocialSafe asked me what I wanted to backup. I checked all of the options, but one can easily limit the backup to only messages, or only photo albums, for example. The initial sync took less than an hour, and created a 300 MB local backup that was as functional as it was elegant. A calendar mode allows one to go back in time, making navigation a breeze, and the application includes a powerful search function (something that Facebook glaringly lacks). In regards to content: if you can see it on Facebook, SocialSafe can back it up (the exception being support for Messages; SocialSafe doesn’t currently backup attachments, such as photos in message threads). Conveniently, the application can also export a subset of your backup as a CSV file. Finally, one nifty gem: SocialSafe tracks your Friend List in between backups, and keeps a list of “old friends” — people who have unfriended you or deleted their account. So far, I have 39 “old friends.” (What a self-esteem booster! Kidding.)
Why do I use SocialSafe? Well, I use it occasionally to search through old, lengthy message threads, a task that Facebook handles clumsily. More importantly, though, I use it as insurance against data loss and as a way to feel that I “own” my own data. If something catastrophic happens with Facebook’s servers (unlikely), or I accidentally delete an important conversation or post (more likely), it’s nice to have a backup. And in an age where Facebook claims that it doesn’t have to hand over all of one’s personal data (remember Max Schrems?), keeping a local copy of my online social life is important to me in a strange, idiosyncratic way. SocialSafe doesn’t truly make you the owner of your online data, but it creates a pleasant facade that embodies a reassuring sense of control.