Google Takeout lets you retrieve your original YouTube videos

Up until now, when you uploaded a video from your computer or phone to YouTube, those files would be trans-coded and you would not be able to get them back in their original quality.

Thanks to Data Liberation Front, an engineering team at Google, you now have the ability to download videos you have uploaded to YouTube in their original quality. Mind you, this is only for your files, so copyright issues are not a factor here.

"Users should be able to control the data they store in any of Google’s products. Our team’s goal is to make it easier to move data in and out."
-Data Liberation Front Mission Statement

Beyond your YouTube videos, Google Takeout also empowers you to manage your contacts, Picasa photos, Google Voice features, documents off Google Drive and more. It all starts by going to the Google Takeout page, and selecting “Create Archive” of the services you select. 

The process is not instantaneous, if you have uploaded a lot of videos or other files, it may take some time to get them ready for download. That is not really a problem because the service will send you an email when everything is ready. 

This is a great added feature to Google Takeout. How many videos have you uploaded to YouTube from your phone? How many times have you lost, broken, had stolen, switched your phone and maybe did not back up those videos? Now, you can get them back and that is pretty cool.