The living report

A report that stays current, instead of one you rebuild by hand.

Instagram can send you a copy of your data on a repeating schedule, delivered straight to a Google Drive folder you own. Connect that Drive to Opt2In once, and your report updates itself as each new export lands. You do not upload anything again.

Invited beta
StatusInvited accounts only
PlatformInstagram exports from Meta
Where the file livesYour own Google Drive
Permission requesteddrive.readonly
What it is

The same report, without the manual step.

Opt2In turns an Instagram data export into a report: which companies hold your information, which ads reached you, and what your attention is worth to the advertisers buying it. Today that report is a snapshot of the day you ran it. The living report is the version that keeps up.

How it works today

You download, you upload, you read

You request an export from Instagram, wait for the download link, and drop the file on opt2in.com. The report is built in your browser and the file never leaves your device. It is accurate on the day you run it, and a month later it is a month old. To refresh it, you do the whole thing again.

How the living report works

Meta delivers, Opt2In reads, the report moves

You set Instagram's export to repeat and to deliver into your own Google Drive. Each delivery is a new dated bundle in your Drive. Opt2In checks for bundles it has not read yet, reads the advertising and activity files inside them, and updates your numbers. You do nothing after the one-time setup.

How the Drive connection works

Four steps, and only one of them involves us.

1

You ask Meta to deliver your export to your own Drive

In Meta's Accounts Center you request an export of your information, choose the JSON format, set it to repeat, and choose Google Drive as the destination. You sign in to your own Google account for that step, so Meta writes into a folder you own and control.

Opt2In is not involved here, has no role in it, and never asks for your Instagram credentials. We do not connect to Instagram at all. We read a file that Meta has already handed to you.

2

Meta creates a folder and keeps adding to it

The first delivery creates a folder named like meta-2026-Jul-30-09-30-15. Every delivery after that drops a new dated bundle inside it, named like instagram-{your account}-2026-07-30-{id}. Nothing is overwritten, so the folder becomes a running history of your own data.

3

You connect that Drive to Opt2In, once

Google shows you its own consent screen, naming Opt2In and the exact permission being requested: read-only access to Google Drive, the scope Google calls drive.readonly. You approve it in Google's interface, not ours, and we never see or store your Google password.

You can withdraw it whenever you like at myaccount.google.com, under third-party apps with account access. Access stops immediately.

4

Opt2In reads new bundles and updates the report

A scheduled job checks whether a bundle newer than the last one it read has arrived in the agreed folder. If one has, it reads the advertising and activity files inside it and updates your report. If nothing new has landed, it does nothing at all.

This part works differently from the free report, and it is worth saying plainly rather than leaving it to be inferred: the free report on opt2in.com is parsed entirely in your browser and your file never leaves your device, while the living report is read and processed on Opt2In's servers. That is the trade. It is what lets the report update while you are not there.

If deliveries stop, which happens when Meta quietly kills an export schedule, the gap is detected and flagged rather than left to go quietly stale.

Exactly what Opt2In accesses

Meta export bundles. Nothing else in your Drive.

The permission Google grants is read-only. Within that permission, Opt2In limits itself to the Meta export bundles in the folder agreed at setup, identified by Meta's own naming pattern.

Read-only, and only the export bundles

Opt2In requests read access and nothing more. It cannot create, edit, move, rename, or delete anything in your Drive, because the permission it is granted does not allow writing.

Why read-only access to Drive rather than something narrower: Google's per-file permission, drive.file, covers two kinds of file, the ones an app created itself and the ones you hand it through Google's own file picker. Meta's deliveries are neither. They are created by Meta, and a bundle that has not arrived yet cannot be picked in advance. We tested that rather than assumed it, and the listing came back empty. Read-only Drive access is the smallest Google permission under which the living report can work at all, and we hold ourselves to the export bundles inside it.

What is read

  • Meta export bundlesFolders matching Meta's export naming pattern, and export archives from the same delivery, inside the folder agreed at setup.
  • Advertising data inside themThe advertisers holding your contact information, the ads shown to you and when, and the off-platform activity businesses shared with Meta.
  • Interests and topicsThe interest and topic labels Meta assigned to you, which is what makes an advertiser willing to pay for your attention.
  • Your own viewing countsPosts, videos, and ads counted per day, which is how the report works out how much of your feed was advertising.

What is not touched

  • The rest of your DriveYour documents, photos, spreadsheets, and every other file are not opened, downloaded, indexed, or scanned. Opt2In looks for Meta export bundles by name, and reads those.
  • Nothing is written or removedNo file in your Drive is created, changed, moved, or deleted by Opt2In. Your copy of every export stays exactly where Meta put it.
  • Your messagesThe living report is built from advertising and activity files. The reader skips the messages folder inside your export, so those files are never listed and never downloaded, and no message content is stored.
  • Your Instagram accountThe Drive connection gives Opt2In no access to Instagram. It cannot post, read your feed, or see anything Meta has not already delivered to your Drive.
What is kept, and what is never done

We keep the report, not your export.

What is stored is the derived report: counts, totals, advertiser and brand names, and dates. That is what a report is made of, and it is what lets the numbers show a trend over weeks instead of a single day. Opt2In does not keep a copy of your export bundle.

Your data is not sold. No individual data from your Drive is handed to an advertiser, a brand, or a data broker. Opt2In makes money when someone chooses a deal from a partner and the partner pays a referral commission. That is the whole business model.

Nothing here is shared with other users. Any comparison numbers on the site come from people who separately opted in to contribute anonymous aggregates, and are counted, never quoted.

Google API Services User Data Policy

Opt2In's use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Turning it off

One click on Google's side, and it stops.

Go to myaccount.google.com, find Opt2In under third-party apps with account access, and remove it. Opt2In loses its read access immediately and the report stops updating. You do not need our permission, and you do not need to tell us.

The report you already have stays as it is. To have the data derived from your exports deleted as well, write to privacy@opt2in.com; deletion runs on the same 30-day window as account deletion.

Stopping the deliveries themselves is a separate switch, and it is yours too: cancel the recurring export in Meta's Accounts Center, and nothing new arrives in your Drive.

Invited beta

This is not open to everyone yet.

The living report runs for invited accounts only. It has run daily on the founder's own account since June 2026, which is where every part of it gets tested first. Invitations beyond that are handled one person at a time, in a guided setup session, with a written consent sheet covering exactly what is read, what is kept, and the fact that the operator who runs the pipeline can see the report built from their exports.

There is no signup form on this page and no way to switch it on yourself yet. If you want in, or you simply want to know when it opens more widely, write to robert@opt2in.com. Meanwhile the one-off report is free, needs no account, and reads your file entirely in your browser.