Comment by GeekyBear

Comment by GeekyBear 3 months ago

> Google doesn't send your pictures to their servers without your explicit consent.

The parents Google tried to get arrested in the story above do not agree.

> When Mark’s and Cassio’s photos were automatically uploaded from their phones to Google’s servers, this technology flagged them. Jon Callas of the E.F.F. called the scanning intrusive, saying a family photo album on someone’s personal device should be a “private sphere.” (A Google spokeswoman said the company scans only when an “affirmative action” is taken by a user; that includes when the user’s phone backs up photos to the company’s cloud.)

Google not only automatically uploaded their images to their server, it analyzed those images and reported the users to the police for kiddie porn based on a single false positive.

brokenmachine 3 months ago

When I first ran Google Photos on my Android phone, it asked me if I want to enable automatic backup to Google. There were definitely some dark patterns there, but it was easy and obvious how to opt out.

If you care about not sending photos to Google, it's pretty obvious how to not have that happen.

IMO, Google is not the bad guy here, although when it was explained to them that the photos were legitimate, they should definitely have reenabled the account.

I'm OK with Google scanning photos that I send to them that will be stored on their servers. Honestly, how can they not?

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johnisgood 3 months ago

> user’s phone backs up photos to the company’s cloud.

I never enable cloud backups, because it means my shit is sent somewhere.

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GeekyBear 3 months ago

You don't have to enable it, since Google backs up your photos to their servers by default.
Then they proceed to claim those automatic backups are an "affirmative action" that justifies them scanning the contents of your images as well.

Reply View | 5 replies
- fauigerzigerk 3 months ago
  
  >You don't have to enable it, since Google backs up your photos to their servers by default.
  When setting up a new phone (and many times thereafter) they prompt you to enable photos backup. It's not on by default if I remember correctly.
  
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  blincoln 3 months ago
  
  If you don't enable backup, Google Photos randomly reprompts on a regular basis with a "sure would be a shame if something happened to your photos!" modal. It's very easy to accidentally turn it on without noticing when this happens, if one has preemptively clicked where they expect a different UI element to be.
  
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  johnisgood 3 months ago
  
  It is not enabled by default if we trust it. In fact, I am not even logged in to Google.
  
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- brokenmachine 3 months ago
  
  It's not on by default. It asks when you first add your account to Android.
  
  Reply View | 0 replies
- lern_too_spel 3 months ago
  
  > Google backs up your photos to their servers by default.
  You keep saying that, but it remains false. The parents explicitly opted in to sending their photos to Google.
  
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