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There's a way that gets you almost all of the way there with an absolute minimum of hassle, and using supported interfaces only.

Use Stack Exchange's GDPR Data Access Request interface.

Start at /legal/gdpr/request on a site where you have an account and are logged in. (It looks like the process should work equally well if you aren't logged in but just have access to the e-mail address associated with your content, but I haven't tried that myself.)

Choose to make an "Export my data" request. Verify that the e-mail address shown is accurate (you'll get a confirmation request sent there), leave the details field empty, and submit the request.

You'll get an e-mail seeking confirmation that the request is legitimate. Click the appropriate link in that email to proceed.

You'll get an e-mail confirming that the request is being processed. Wait.

You'll get a third e-mail when the data dump is ready, which contains a link to a landing page where the data can be downloaded as a ZIP archive of JSON files.

In my case, the whole process from beginning to when I had the ZIP file downloaded took about 15 minutes.

Once you have that, you can look over the JSON files to extract raw post content (there's PostHistory.json and PostComments.json which are likely to be of particular interest). Those files also contain post IDs, which can be inserted into URLs that can then be fed into any web downloader, such as wget or curl, to download rendered copies. For example, if the JSON in your Meta Stack Exchange PostHistory.json (qa/meta.stackexchange.com/PostHistory.json within the archive) says

{"type":"Initial Body","postId":1234567,"revisionGUID":"141d266a-ac6a-4e4a-a72e-b8fe137e37dd","creationDate":"2019-01-02T03:04:05.678Z","ipAddress":"192.0.2.123","text":"elided for brevity"},

then you can make a web request for https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/1234567 which will get you a rendered page where your answer appears in the context of the question.

As an aside, if you're so inclined, there's probably a way to use the Stack Exchange API to get machine-parsable content also for the question and answers other than your own; or for answers to your question.

At a glance, the export looks to be quite complete; the only obvious thing that appears to be missing is content you've posted on sites which have since been shut down.


This should work just as well for people who are not EU citizens or residents and therefore not ordinarily covered by the GDPR specifically. Compare Brace yourselves: The GDPR is coming!, in which Tim Post (a Stack Exchange employee) wrote, emphasis mine:

While this was done to be compliant with the GDPR, we strongly believe in the intent and spirit of the GDPR, and have extended its protection to everyone.

Besides, for an automated system, it just makes things more complicated to try to determine based on geographic location or citizenship whether a user should be allowed to use it or not. It's much easier to just make the automated data export feature available to everyone.

There's a way that gets you almost all of the way there with an absolute minimum of hassle, and using supported interfaces only.

Use Stack Exchange's GDPR Data Access Request interface.

Start at /legal/gdpr/request on a site where you have an account and are logged in.

Choose to make an "Export my data" request. Verify that the e-mail address shown is accurate (you'll get a confirmation request sent there), leave the details field empty, and submit the request.

You'll get an e-mail seeking confirmation that the request is legitimate. Click the appropriate link in that email to proceed.

You'll get an e-mail confirming that the request is being processed. Wait.

You'll get a third e-mail when the data dump is ready, which contains a link to a landing page where the data can be downloaded as a ZIP archive of JSON files.

In my case, the whole process from beginning to when I had the ZIP file downloaded took about 15 minutes.

Once you have that, you can look over the JSON files to extract raw post content (there's PostHistory.json and PostComments.json which are likely to be of particular interest). Those files also contain post IDs, which can be inserted into URLs that can then be fed into any web downloader, such as wget or curl, to download rendered copies. For example, if the JSON in your Meta Stack Exchange PostHistory.json (qa/meta.stackexchange.com/PostHistory.json within the archive) says

{"type":"Initial Body","postId":1234567,"revisionGUID":"141d266a-ac6a-4e4a-a72e-b8fe137e37dd","creationDate":"2019-01-02T03:04:05.678Z","ipAddress":"192.0.2.123","text":"elided for brevity"},

then you can make a web request for https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/1234567 which will get you a rendered page where your answer appears in the context of the question.

As an aside, if you're so inclined, there's probably a way to use the Stack Exchange API to get machine-parsable content also for the question and answers other than your own; or for answers to your question.

At a glance, the export looks to be quite complete; the only obvious thing that appears to be missing is content you've posted on sites which have since been shut down.


This should work just as well for people who are not EU citizens or residents and therefore not ordinarily covered by the GDPR specifically. Compare Brace yourselves: The GDPR is coming!, in which Tim Post (a Stack Exchange employee) wrote, emphasis mine:

While this was done to be compliant with the GDPR, we strongly believe in the intent and spirit of the GDPR, and have extended its protection to everyone.

Besides, for an automated system, it just makes things more complicated to try to determine based on geographic location or citizenship whether a user should be allowed to use it or not. It's much easier to just make the automated data export feature available to everyone.

There's a way that gets you almost all of the way there with an absolute minimum of hassle, and using supported interfaces only.

Use Stack Exchange's GDPR Data Access Request interface.

Start at /legal/gdpr/request on a site where you have an account and are logged in. (It looks like the process should work equally well if you aren't logged in but just have access to the e-mail address associated with your content, but I haven't tried that myself.)

Choose to make an "Export my data" request. Verify that the e-mail address shown is accurate (you'll get a confirmation request sent there), leave the details field empty, and submit the request.

You'll get an e-mail seeking confirmation that the request is legitimate. Click the appropriate link in that email to proceed.

You'll get an e-mail confirming that the request is being processed. Wait.

You'll get a third e-mail when the data dump is ready, which contains a link to a landing page where the data can be downloaded as a ZIP archive of JSON files.

In my case, the whole process from beginning to when I had the ZIP file downloaded took about 15 minutes.

Once you have that, you can look over the JSON files to extract raw post content (there's PostHistory.json and PostComments.json which are likely to be of particular interest). Those files also contain post IDs, which can be inserted into URLs that can then be fed into any web downloader, such as wget or curl, to download rendered copies. For example, if the JSON in your Meta Stack Exchange PostHistory.json (qa/meta.stackexchange.com/PostHistory.json within the archive) says

{"type":"Initial Body","postId":1234567,"revisionGUID":"141d266a-ac6a-4e4a-a72e-b8fe137e37dd","creationDate":"2019-01-02T03:04:05.678Z","ipAddress":"192.0.2.123","text":"elided for brevity"},

then you can make a web request for https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/1234567 which will get you a rendered page where your answer appears in the context of the question.

As an aside, if you're so inclined, there's probably a way to use the Stack Exchange API to get machine-parsable content also for the question and answers other than your own; or for answers to your question.

At a glance, the export looks to be quite complete; the only obvious thing that appears to be missing is content you've posted on sites which have since been shut down.


This should work just as well for people who are not EU citizens or residents and therefore not ordinarily covered by the GDPR specifically. Compare Brace yourselves: The GDPR is coming!, in which Tim Post (a Stack Exchange employee) wrote, emphasis mine:

While this was done to be compliant with the GDPR, we strongly believe in the intent and spirit of the GDPR, and have extended its protection to everyone.

Besides, for an automated system, it just makes things more complicated to try to determine based on geographic location or citizenship whether a user should be allowed to use it or not. It's much easier to just make the automated data export feature available to everyone.

added 790 characters in body
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user
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There's a way that gets you almost all of the way there with an absolute minimum of hassle, and using supported interfaces only.

Use Stack Exchange's GDPR Data Access Request interface.

Start at /legal/gdpr/request on a site where you have an account and are logged in.

Choose to make an "Export my data" request. Verify that the e-mail address shown is accurate (you'll get a confirmation request sent there), leave the details field empty, and submit the request.

You'll get an e-mail seeking confirmation that the request is legitimate. Click the appropriate link in that email to proceed.

You'll get an e-mail confirming that the request is being processed. Wait.

You'll get a third e-mail when the data dump is ready, which contains a link to a landing page where the data can be downloaded as a ZIP archive of JSON files.

In my case, the whole process from beginning to when I had the ZIP file downloaded took about 15 minutes.

Once you have that, you can look over the JSON files to extract raw post content (there's PostHistory.json and PostComments.json which are likely to be of particular interest). Those files also contain post IDs, which can be inserted into URLs that can then be fed into any web downloader, such as wget or curl, to download rendered copies. For example, if the JSON in your Meta Stack Exchange PostHistory.json (qa/meta.stackexchange.com/PostHistory.json within the archive) says

{"type":"Initial Body","postId":1234567,"revisionGUID":"141d266a-ac6a-4e4a-a72e-b8fe137e37dd","creationDate":"2019-01-02T03:04:05.678Z","ipAddress":"192.0.2.123","text":"elided for brevity"},

then you can make a web request for https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/1234567 which will get you a rendered page where your answer appears in the context of the question.

As an aside, if you're so inclined, there's probably a way to use the Stack Exchange API to get machine-parsable content also for the question and answers other than your own; or for answers to your question.

At a glance, the export looks to be quite complete; the only obvious thing that appears to be missing is content you've posted on sites which have since been shut down.


This should work just as well for people who are not EU citizens or residents and therefore not ordinarily covered by the GDPR specifically. Compare Brace yourselves: The GDPR is coming!, in which Tim Post (a Stack Exchange employee) wrote, emphasis mine:

While this was done to be compliant with the GDPR, we strongly believe in the intent and spirit of the GDPR, and have extended its protection to everyone.

Besides, for an automated system, it just makes things more complicated to try to determine based on geographic location or citizenship whether a user should be allowed to use it or not. It's much easier to just make the automated data export feature available to everyone.

There's a way that gets you almost all of the way there with an absolute minimum of hassle, and using supported interfaces only.

Use Stack Exchange's GDPR Data Access Request interface.

Start at /legal/gdpr/request on a site where you have an account and are logged in.

Choose to make an "Export my data" request. Verify that the e-mail address shown is accurate (you'll get a confirmation request sent there), leave the details field empty, and submit the request.

You'll get an e-mail seeking confirmation that the request is legitimate. Click the appropriate link in that email to proceed.

You'll get an e-mail confirming that the request is being processed. Wait.

You'll get a third e-mail when the data dump is ready, which contains a link to a landing page where the data can be downloaded as a ZIP archive of JSON files.

In my case, the whole process from beginning to when I had the ZIP file downloaded took about 15 minutes.

Once you have that, you can look over the JSON files to extract raw post content (there's PostHistory.json and PostComments.json which are likely to be of particular interest). Those files also contain post IDs, which can be inserted into URLs that can then be fed into any web downloader, such as wget or curl, to download rendered copies. For example, if the JSON in your Meta Stack Exchange PostHistory.json (qa/meta.stackexchange.com/PostHistory.json within the archive) says

{"type":"Initial Body","postId":1234567,"revisionGUID":"141d266a-ac6a-4e4a-a72e-b8fe137e37dd","creationDate":"2019-01-02T03:04:05.678Z","ipAddress":"192.0.2.123","text":"elided for brevity"},

then you can make a web request for https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/1234567 which will get you a rendered page where your answer appears in the context of the question.

As an aside, if you're so inclined, there's probably a way to use the Stack Exchange API to get machine-parsable content also for the question and answers other than your own; or for answers to your question.

At a glance, the export looks to be quite complete; the only obvious thing that appears to be missing is content you've posted on sites which have since been shut down.

There's a way that gets you almost all of the way there with an absolute minimum of hassle, and using supported interfaces only.

Use Stack Exchange's GDPR Data Access Request interface.

Start at /legal/gdpr/request on a site where you have an account and are logged in.

Choose to make an "Export my data" request. Verify that the e-mail address shown is accurate (you'll get a confirmation request sent there), leave the details field empty, and submit the request.

You'll get an e-mail seeking confirmation that the request is legitimate. Click the appropriate link in that email to proceed.

You'll get an e-mail confirming that the request is being processed. Wait.

You'll get a third e-mail when the data dump is ready, which contains a link to a landing page where the data can be downloaded as a ZIP archive of JSON files.

In my case, the whole process from beginning to when I had the ZIP file downloaded took about 15 minutes.

Once you have that, you can look over the JSON files to extract raw post content (there's PostHistory.json and PostComments.json which are likely to be of particular interest). Those files also contain post IDs, which can be inserted into URLs that can then be fed into any web downloader, such as wget or curl, to download rendered copies. For example, if the JSON in your Meta Stack Exchange PostHistory.json (qa/meta.stackexchange.com/PostHistory.json within the archive) says

{"type":"Initial Body","postId":1234567,"revisionGUID":"141d266a-ac6a-4e4a-a72e-b8fe137e37dd","creationDate":"2019-01-02T03:04:05.678Z","ipAddress":"192.0.2.123","text":"elided for brevity"},

then you can make a web request for https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/1234567 which will get you a rendered page where your answer appears in the context of the question.

As an aside, if you're so inclined, there's probably a way to use the Stack Exchange API to get machine-parsable content also for the question and answers other than your own; or for answers to your question.

At a glance, the export looks to be quite complete; the only obvious thing that appears to be missing is content you've posted on sites which have since been shut down.


This should work just as well for people who are not EU citizens or residents and therefore not ordinarily covered by the GDPR specifically. Compare Brace yourselves: The GDPR is coming!, in which Tim Post (a Stack Exchange employee) wrote, emphasis mine:

While this was done to be compliant with the GDPR, we strongly believe in the intent and spirit of the GDPR, and have extended its protection to everyone.

Besides, for an automated system, it just makes things more complicated to try to determine based on geographic location or citizenship whether a user should be allowed to use it or not. It's much easier to just make the automated data export feature available to everyone.

edited body
Source Link
user
  • 9k
  • 33
  • 60

There's a way that gets you almost all of the way there with an absolute minimum of hassle, and using supported interfaces only.

Use Stack Exchange's GDPR Data Access Request interface.

Start at /legal/gdpr/request on a site where you have an account and are logged in.

Choose to make an "Export my data" request. Verify that the e-mail address shown is accurate (you'll get a confirmation request sent there), leave the details field empty, and submit the request.

You'll get an e-mail seeking confirmation that the request is legitimate. Click the appropriate link in that email to proceed.

You'll get an e-mail confirming that the request is being processed. Wait.

You'll get a third e-mail when the data dump is ready, which contains a link to a landing page where the data can be downloaded as a ZIP archive of JSON files.

In my case, the whole process from beginning to when I had the ZIP file downloaded took about 15 minutes.

Once you have that, you can look over the JSON files to extract raw post content (there's PostHistory.json and PostComments.json which are likely to be of particular interest). Those files also contain post IDs, which can be inserted into URLs that can then be fed into any web downloader, such as wget or curl, to download rendered copies. For example, if the JSON in your Meta Stack Exchange PostHistory.json (qa/meta.stackexchange.com/PostHistory.json within the archive) says

{"type":"Initial Body","postId":1234567,"revisionGUID":"141d266a-ac6a-4e4a-a72e-b8fe137e37dd","creationDate":"2019-01-02T03:04:05.678Z","ipAddress":"192.0.2.123","text":"elided for brevity"},

then you can make a web request for https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/1234567 which will get you a rendered page where your answer appears in the context of the question.

As an aside, if you're so inclined, there's probably a way to use the Stack Exchange API to get machine-parsable content also for the question and answers other than your own; or for answers to your question; if you're so inclinedquestion.

At a glance, the export looks to be quite complete; the only obvious thing that appears to be missing is content you've posted on sites which have since been shut down.

There's a way that gets you almost all of the way there with an absolute minimum of hassle, and using supported interfaces only.

Use Stack Exchange's GDPR Data Access Request interface.

Start at /legal/gdpr/request on a site where you have an account and are logged in.

Choose to make an "Export my data" request. Verify that the e-mail address shown is accurate (you'll get a confirmation request sent there), leave the details field empty, and submit the request.

You'll get an e-mail seeking confirmation that the request is legitimate. Click the appropriate link in that email to proceed.

You'll get an e-mail confirming that the request is being processed. Wait.

You'll get a third e-mail when the data dump is ready, which contains a link to a landing page where the data can be downloaded as a ZIP archive of JSON files.

In my case, the whole process from beginning to when I had the ZIP file downloaded took about 15 minutes.

Once you have that, you can look over the JSON files to extract raw post content (there's PostHistory.json and PostComments.json which are likely to be of particular interest). Those files also contain post IDs, which can be inserted into URLs that can then be fed into any web downloader, such as wget or curl, to download rendered copies. For example, if the JSON in your Meta Stack Exchange PostHistory.json (qa/meta.stackexchange.com/PostHistory.json within the archive) says

{"type":"Initial Body","postId":1234567,"revisionGUID":"141d266a-ac6a-4e4a-a72e-b8fe137e37dd","creationDate":"2019-01-02T03:04:05.678Z","ipAddress":"192.0.2.123","text":"elided for brevity"},

then you can make a web request for https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/1234567 which will get you a rendered page where your answer appears in the context of the question.

As an aside, there's probably a way to use the Stack Exchange API to get machine-parsable content also for the question and answers other than your own; or for answers to your question; if you're so inclined.

At a glance, the export looks to be quite complete; the only obvious thing that appears to be missing is content you've posted on sites which have since been shut down.

There's a way that gets you almost all of the way there with an absolute minimum of hassle, and using supported interfaces only.

Use Stack Exchange's GDPR Data Access Request interface.

Start at /legal/gdpr/request on a site where you have an account and are logged in.

Choose to make an "Export my data" request. Verify that the e-mail address shown is accurate (you'll get a confirmation request sent there), leave the details field empty, and submit the request.

You'll get an e-mail seeking confirmation that the request is legitimate. Click the appropriate link in that email to proceed.

You'll get an e-mail confirming that the request is being processed. Wait.

You'll get a third e-mail when the data dump is ready, which contains a link to a landing page where the data can be downloaded as a ZIP archive of JSON files.

In my case, the whole process from beginning to when I had the ZIP file downloaded took about 15 minutes.

Once you have that, you can look over the JSON files to extract raw post content (there's PostHistory.json and PostComments.json which are likely to be of particular interest). Those files also contain post IDs, which can be inserted into URLs that can then be fed into any web downloader, such as wget or curl, to download rendered copies. For example, if the JSON in your Meta Stack Exchange PostHistory.json (qa/meta.stackexchange.com/PostHistory.json within the archive) says

{"type":"Initial Body","postId":1234567,"revisionGUID":"141d266a-ac6a-4e4a-a72e-b8fe137e37dd","creationDate":"2019-01-02T03:04:05.678Z","ipAddress":"192.0.2.123","text":"elided for brevity"},

then you can make a web request for https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/1234567 which will get you a rendered page where your answer appears in the context of the question.

As an aside, if you're so inclined, there's probably a way to use the Stack Exchange API to get machine-parsable content also for the question and answers other than your own; or for answers to your question.

At a glance, the export looks to be quite complete; the only obvious thing that appears to be missing is content you've posted on sites which have since been shut down.

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