Of course you *can*. But I’ve trusted Google’s services for example for data transformation. They get bored, shut it down, I’m screwed.
Wrote thousands of messages on America Online from 1988 to the mid 1990s. In 1997 I think, maybe 2007, they wiped them out. Started fresh. Shit just gone. Just like that.
Theory is nice. Reality is reality.
Usenet, thankfully, did it right. I was able to retrieve every word I ever wrote on Usenet from 1988-2015 without any problem. [not that I’ve used Usenet in 10 years but I was able to do it].
Facebook does it wrong. Profit, you know. They hold the data. Usenet did it right. All online social networks are just poor copycats with financial motives. Just how it is.