Own Your Data
If that thought is scary, it's probably because that account holds things that are important to you.
Own Your Data is an open-source toolkit that helps you extract, backup, and own your personal data from platforms that currently hold it hostage. It's the foundational first step in building a personal AI system aligned with the Personal AI Manifesto.
⚠️ Experimental — Use at your own risk
The Problem
Your life is fragmented across dozens of platforms—WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google. Each platform sees only a slice of you. No system sees the whole you.
If losing access to any of these accounts feels scary, it's because they hold things that are important to you. But you don't actually own that data—the platforms do.
The Solution
A collection of local-first, open-source tools that:
- Extract your data from platforms using official APIs or browser automation
- Store everything locally on your machine
- Optionally sync to your own GitHub repository for version control
- Give you true ownership and control
Supported Platforms
Automated extraction:
- 📱 WhatsApp — Messages via Baileys
- 🐦 Twitter/X — Tweets via Playwright
- 📸 Instagram — Posts via Playwright
Manual export workflows:
- 💼 LinkedIn — Messages & connections via official archive
- 👥 Google Contacts — Direct CSV export
Key Principles
Open source
You can audit the code. No black boxes, no hidden data collection.
Local-first
No cloud dependency. Everything runs on your machine. Your data stays yours.
Version-based backup
Sync to your own GitHub repo. Track changes over time. Never lose your digital history.
Why This Matters
This project is the critical first pillar of the Personal AI vision: Help individuals own their data.[1]
Before you can build a personal AI that truly understands you, before you can create a second brain that has your full context, you need to aggregate your data into one place you control.
Once you own your data, you can:
- Make it AI-friendly and searchable
- Build personal AI agents with full context
- Create a priority inbox across all channels
- Search your entire digital life
- Never lose important information again
Owning your data is essential to personal sovereignty in the age of AI.[1]
Get Started
🌐 Website: dh7.github.io/own-your-data
💻 GitHub: github.com/dh7/own-your-data
# Setup (once) npm run config # WhatsApp workflow npm run whatsapp:get # Collect raw data npm run whatsapp:process # Generate local output npm run whatsapp:push # Sync to GitHub # Twitter workflow npm run twitter:get # Scrape tweets npm run twitter:push # Sync to GitHub # Instagram workflow npm run instagram:get # Scrape posts + images npm run instagram:push # Sync to GitHub # Push all connectors npm run push
What's Next
This is just the beginning. The roadmap includes:
- More platform connectors (Gmail, Slack, Discord, etc.)
- Tools to process data into AI-friendly formats
- Local AI integration for semantic search
- Personal knowledge graph generation
The goal: a complete personal data lake that enables true personal AI.