Google confirms its latest update can scan all your photos to “use actual images of you and your loved ones” in AI image generation. That means Gemini seeing who you know and what you do. You likely have tens or hundreds of thousands of photos. They’re all exposed if you update.
Why search for a doctor’s appointment when Google has access to all your calendar events. Why search for a party invite when it reads all your emails. And why search for a specific photo of you and your loved ones to create an image, when it sees all your photos.
They try very hard to sell this as something positive and not the privacy invasive nightmare it is.
I am 99% certain the author was writing with a purposefully sardonic tone.
Does it matter what we do? There’s definitely some family member, friend, colleague who has taken a picture of you and your likeness will be processed.
It’s like people tagging you in Facebook pictures even if you don’t have an account, but worse, because that was an active step. This is fully automated.
Yeah, we are all fucked. I’m still not going to give Google my data willingly.
There’s definitely some family member, friend, colleague who has taken a picture of you and your likeness will be processed.
Hah, I’m good then.
I’m a vampire.
Actually only DSLRs use mirrors. Every other camera can see you Nightwalker
Ah but you see, I’m a Clown Juggalo Vampire
Wouldn’t face paint just make you look like the invisible man in photos?
Don’t know, but in mirrors it looks funky. And I only have a Minolta Maxxum 7000. They don’t build then like they used to.
I imagine AI finds it even weirder.
DSLRs only use mirrors for the viewfinder. Would appear just fine to the sensor
Deal with the stuff you have control over. You’ll never remove it all, but remove what you still can.
Soon google will geomap your home interior, and have a full inventory of all your possessions. Should you resist in any way?
Say, if phones started creating a 3d map everywhere they went, and you obviously disable it. There will, at some point, be someone who enters your house and unwittingly map it out.
This isn’t about personal resistance but the futility of it as the general populace neither cares, knows or put any thought into it.
I use opt out strings in my SSID, blurred the house on gmaps, etc. Last year noticed some random person put it on mapillary, there’s other services that require other optout strings. That’s just scratching the surface.
Things are happening that I don’t even know about, let alone respond to them.
I warned most of my family and friends this was going to happen when I de-Googled and set up Immich and they all said I was paranoid.
I wish I could do that… I even learned like 70% of the knowledge I would need to do something like that… Now I just need the hardware market to crash, so I can actually fucking afford the hardware to do it.
What’s your budget?
You can still geht really good deals on older used mini pcs
They say you are paranoid after releasing them these news.
Does it matter if you don’t update? I imagine they already have it on their servers, which is where I imagine the photos are mostly processed.
Since decades, Google Photos is cloud storage. Update or no, they already got your photos for this.
The more offensive part is, Google Photos is not only the default image viewer on (Google’s) Android, but (Google’s) Camera app will only open pictures in it too. So it’s cloud crap that’s also literally programmed into a lot of people’s cameras.
Check out https://github.com/CaramelFur/GPhotosShim which stops GCam from using Photos. This is why my gOS uses GCam with network denied (because it works way better on Pixels than the OSS equivalent).
Nice thanks. I was getting annoyed with that and have recently degoogled. The camera appnseems good for pixels though. I might switch back now.
I tried this and a recommended fork just now, but I don’t think you can use it unless you fully remove the default provider first. I have a locked phone and I think that makes it impossible for me
Look at adb or LineageOS, otherwise make sure to factor it in for your next phone (second hand + a new battery replacement pack from iFixit works well these days, not as bad as you think doing it, Pixels 8 and above get 7 years of security updates).
The phone in question is the HMD Skyline, which gets a 9/10 on iFixit (and is a 0/10 on the software side, which they conveniently left out)
I’ll live without it and probably trade in the repairable phone (lol) but it really is a bummer
0/10 on the software side
Sadly to be assumed these days unless proven otherwise, that or hardcore trapped in a walled garden…
I was hoping I’d find something like this one day and of course I find it on Lemmy.
Thank you!
Nice. Unfortunately, it does not offer choosing Immich as an image viewer. I guess this is on Immich to fix, though.
I just tried and the Google camera app uses an internal browser, not the photos app. I think it’s something you have set on your device.
Unless you deny network permission for Photos, which I highly recommend.
I never activated cloud storage for Google Photos. Whenever I open it for some reason, it complains about it. I need something non-shittified to go through my gallery, just haven’t looked for it very much yet.
What are you saying? I have a samsung and nothing is backed up to google drive. In fact i just checked after reading the article. Is there another place they backup or are you talking about the backup?
Samsung has their own proprietary Camera app, and its own proprietary Gallery app. The Google issue probably doesn’t apply to you, but even though they’re better than Google options, you’re still locked in too.
Your mileage may vary depending on the cellphone manufacturer, but everything I’ve seen (Google or Samsung based) has been locked in and paired on an OS that was once beloved for having interchangeable components.
And this is why you don’t opt in to backup your photos
it backups the whole phone more or less if one chooses to, if there is alternative to it, i dont have a PIXEL, im using a oneplus. to backup the whole phone and redownload everything?
tell me how to opt-out
from what I understood, you have to opt in. so by default, Gemini will not have access to your gallery. It’s just matter of time tho when will Google force this upon it’s users imo
ok thanks
uninstall it or uninstall all app updates and nuke the app data, then switch to local storage and fossify gallery or something
or throw out your phone and buy a fairphone or a phone compatible with grapheneOS
the nuclear option ngl, but my plan: am just gonna wait for my Rooted A55(stuck at one ui 7 cause i dont want to get rid of bootloader unlocking,rooted my phone so am unable to update) until it breaks, i cannot wait for the grapheneOS powered Motorola.(i hope it sells in my country!)
GrapheneOS works great for me. Not a lot you can do on stock android that you can’t do on GrapheneOS. I would highly recommend anyone looking for privacy to look into it. Very very easy to install. Just make sure you have a Pixel phone that is unlocked. I’ve been using it as my daily driver for two years now.
GrapheneOS isn’t a replacement for Google Photos though? What do you use for photo backups? (Immich seems like the obvious answer, but I’d like to know if there’s more options out there)
It let’s you run Google Photos without network permissions and with storage scopes limiting it to certain folders.
Does the photo search still work offline? It doesn’t for me. That seems like it’d be the only reason to stick with that app if you’re not using the cloud storage, otherwise I might as well just use a basic file browser.
I don’t upload my photos to the cloud, and don’t use the search function. It’s just a photo library app on the phone. It seems to do a better job of post processing the pics from my Pixel, which is why in use it.
I use google photos to pull up old pics that have already been uploaded for a long time. Google photos requires you to share your entire library otherwise it doesn’t let you view photos from the cloud, but GOS let’s you tell google photos that you’re sharing your whole library when you actually aren’t. Google doesn’t have access to any of my new pics but I can still view all my old stuff.
My only issue is with banking apps and our national ID app which is very useful. I know some work, but I haven’t seen all that I have listed, so I would have to be the guinea pig :) I actually have an older Pixel phone with a shattered screen, I was planning to have it repaired, so I guess that’s where I can test GrapheneOS safely.
It’s so easy to install! You just need to be in the 3% of smartphone owners who actually have one! EASY!
rolls eyes
Huh? It’s a replacement for android for pixel phones. Therefore it works on… Pixel phones…
My point is that if it requires a specific device that most people don’t have to install, then it is not easy to install for most people, because it literally cannot be.
But it’s not for most people. It’s for Google pixel users, that’s the whole point! That’s like saying oh this diesel sucks and isn’t user friendly because it doesn’t work in my petrol car. That’s because it isn’t for your car.
Then don’t recommend it for people that can’t use it, JFC.
No one is doing that. YOU’RE the one here that is getting angry at nothing. It’s just an option for pixel users, who are one of the only demographics locked into Google photos. Other phone users are free to use their stock photo app. You’ve clearly just misunderstood the original comment and are trying to save face.
Pardon me, starts?
Exactly. It’s google. They’re scanning EVERYTHING. Even if you don’t use google, they probably know about you from OTHERS’ devices who are using google.
If you’re able to manage a Docker container, you could consider Immich. It works great, has client apps for iOS and Android. Open Source. I’ve been using it for a few years now.
Same, I set it up a few years ago and both me and my partner have been using it since then with no issues at all, it’s completely replaced Google Photos for us.
We’ve also set up immich-frame and repurposed an old Google Nest hub to use as a digital photo frame.
Immich-frame has been on my todo list for a while. Need to get on that.
I’ve written a python script that fetches a random image from an immich album using its API, every 30 seconds and sets it as my media pc (Ubuntu) wallpaper. Serves as a frame when no windows are open. Recently updated the code to fetch images only when the desktop has mouse focus, to save unnecessary HDD reads when I’m watching something.
The main reason why I haven’t moved to Immich is backups. Storage is Hella expensive and there’s no way I store photos without a backup.
Backblaze B2 is about $7 a month per TB.
Almost every major backup solution natively supports S3 compatible storage.
$7/month per TB is expensive as a data hoarder…
Best to scope it down to documents, git and photos.
The rest gets an onsite backup to externals.
Obviously cloud storage is convenient, but there’s definitely better value in on-site backups.
That works out to $84/year, which is about what you could get a 1TB HDD for.
2 x 1TB HDDs in RAID will be much cheaper and reasonably safe in the long run.
1TB SSDs will be even better value due to their extended lifespans, and you’d get much better speeds.
I back up to local storage and then replicate offsite to S3 nightly.
On-prem backups are great and cheap and fast and definitely plan A but a robust backup solution is going to require offsite storage of some sort. Object storage is one of the cheapest ways to do that for most situations, particularly for things that can’t be replaced like photos.
I’d do the same if I wasn’t so tight with my money lol. I prefer having multiple on-site backups so I don’t have the subscription fees.
If something bad enough happens to my house that it destroys all my backups then I imagine photos are not going to be very high on my list of priorities.
Not that difficult to setup either. If I can do it anyone with a keyboard can.
It was my first ever Docker app, and it was brain dead easy.
I went back to Polaroid for my nudes.
Can I see?
Just don’t shake them after they come out
But I was told to “shake it off” by the writers of ancient lore…
Outkast lied to us??
Alright, I already transfered the pics to my Immich a month ago anyway, time to delete my shit outright…
Yeah. Because Google would never keep the images anyway.
Yeah, but at least it’ll all be outdated and nothing new is added. And hey, maybe in the future we could get laws that force them to delete anything older than a certain date. Would leaving them there be any better?
Easier to ask for the whole internet to be reset in order to destroy all the garbage data that’s accumulating at the bottom
How did you transfer them? Was it an annoying process?
Like the other comment said, I did a Google takeout of my photos, then used immich-go to transfer them. Was pretty painless, got it done in a few hours, probs less if I was less dummy.
Here’s the guide I followed.
Thank you! I didn’t realize you could just do a Takeout. I started the process last night and hopefully will be able to transfer them soon. It was completed relatively quickly, so I wonder if it will really have everything…
My takeout had everything, even random shit I should’ve deleted forever ago lol. I’d just check for the most important pics (weddings, vacations, etc.) that you would actually be devestated to lose. You can always wait a month or so before deleting to verify your media transferred fine.
I went ahead and deleted everything. Ended up being about ~60 GB, since I only ever used standard compressed storage. It was weird going back through all those photos, but at least I can save them locally now.
My problem is that I can’t download the whole takeout before it expires. Or some fail and they only allow so many retries to download.
Really weird, I’ve never had a takeout download limit or issue; does it fail on both .tgz and .zip versions? Maybe try just outright downloading a few batches of pics at a time and then uploading them to Immich.
I’ll have to give it another try and report back. I think it is like 2TB total so I didn’t have enough time to get it on my 100 Mbps. And then some of them failing and having to restart was not helping.
Voiding my privacy, stealing my IP and opening me up to liabilities…and tis all legal… fuck all of you who gargled their balls and betrayed your own interests for what amounts to digital toys.
Time to invert the colors of some extra weird porn and stuff my Google drive to the brim.
That’s a terrible article though and seems quite click-baity, it’s hard to say what’s going on just based on that.
It also saysWe’re talking Personal Intelligence, Google’s latest AI upgrade path which lets users opt-in to connecting Google apps to Gemini.
If it’s opt-in, it’s fine, as long as the user knows what exactly they are opting in for.Even when they say it’s optional, it’s never actually optional. They are always enabling it in the background and just preventing you from seeing that.
But even if they actually did use an opt-in system properly, they would still only do that for like 6 months, and then in the next update you’d be forced to use it. And who can stop them? There is no alternative.
No alternative? Immich and Ente are definitely an alternative Google Photos. It ain’t that hard to degoogle these days.
There are services and websites that literally won’t let you change your email, so if you used gmail to sign up, you’re stuck with that email.
Never had a website or service deny an email change in my 25 years of being on the internet. But you can move all the other stuff to a different email and keep the ones you can’t change on your gmail. Still a better choice than giving all your data to google.
Immich definitely lets you change your email, and even if they didn’t, it’s open source and self-hostable, you could just do it yourself and submit a PR.
You can opt out with this trendy new cocktail that will be all the rage this summer!
The way they are doing it is kind of sketchy though. They are replacing the old search functionality with Gemini and now if you click the search icon in Google photos it immediately pops up asking you to pick your own face. There’s no option to skip this step, though you can still revert to the old search for now.
The creepy part is that when they ask you to select your face, it’s pretty clear they’ve already figured it out, because it’s the first face they show you.
Except anyone else that has ever taken my picture can opt-in for me, and I have no way of knowing if they did or not.
These intrusive app rollouts are why they want to disable open source repositories. I have google photos disabled, and use gallery from fdroid. I have to manually leave the camera to look at photos but at least if I take a pic in private it probably stays private.
Pandora’s Tech Box opened long ago. It’s already way too late.
