Portability is the practical test of Constitution §2 principle 1 (People own their presence). If a user cannot take their content with them when they leave, they do not really own it. The Data Portability Policy defines what is exportable (Pins, civic reports they filed, account profile, feedback they gave, messages they sent and received), the machine-readable formats Map.ca commits to, the timelines for fulfilling export requests, and the verification steps that prevent portability from becoming an exfiltration vector.
It applies to account holders, Pin owners, civic reporters, and the Map.ca engineering team that maintains the export pipeline.
Requirements
- Provide structured machine-readable exports of user-owned content.
- Document the supported formats publicly.
- Fulfil export requests within a documented timeline.
- Verify identity proportionately before fulfilling the request.
Prohibitions
- Do not charge users for exercising their portability right.
- Do not provide incomplete exports without disclosing what is missing.
- Do not use proprietary formats that lock users in.
- Do not delay portability requests to retain users.