Those photo albums and travel pictures you uploaded to Facebook? Soon you'll be able to move them to another platform, if you want.

The social media network on Monday said it will allow users to move media to other services, starting with Google Photos.

It's a step toward something called data portability, already enshrined in European law. The idea is to give digital users more control more of what they share, and where.

In the U.S., several senators introduced a bill in October requiring big communications companies let users easily move their data from one platform to another.

But an internet trade group that includes Facebook and Google is concerned that a push toward data portability could endanger data security.

For instance, users might not know if the transfer from one platform to another is secure.

Facebook says it will encrypt all transfers, which will require a password.

Users in Ireland get the first crack at the new tool. Facebook later plans to roll out that option to users world wide in the first half of next year.