[charmerci]

I've never backed up my photos on the Cloud but Google has now decided to automatically backup my Android photos and if I'm not connected (I think) I can't access my own photos on my own phone. I've never wanted my photos on some other company's server. This is COMPLETE BS!!!

[WGH]

The Google photo backup makes it easy to share photos, I use it all the time but it's not for everyone.

Have you done this?

Open the Google Photos app and tap you profile picture at the top. Select “Photo settings” > Backup and Sync > and toggle it off.

Make sure you have Backup and Sync OFF before deleting the photos off Google's server

If you back up photos and videos to Google Photos on a mobile device, when you delete them from the Google Photos app, they're also deleted from your device.

[charmerci]

If you back up photos and videos to Google Photos on a mobile device, when you delete them from the Google Photos app, they're also deleted from your device.

That's exactly what I'm saying is complete bullshit.


I'm trying to download my photos onto my computer HD and Microsuck and Google are making it extraordinarily complicated. It used to be really simple but now they're asking me to do all sorts of things with them asking me for permission to access my stuff. 

[FullRangeMan]

In 2021 Goo decided that I was using his translator too much, so they simply deleted the Translator Icon from my Firefox tollbar. In other episode my original 2009 old email was from Goo, til the day they decided block my password, they were demanding a cel phone number and blah blah blah

[charmerci]

Now MS is asking that I "update your device's settings to accept media transfers." Huh?

[charmerci]

Wow. I finally found out how but now I can't back up my own photos to my computer because they are on my phone!

[charmerci]

Ok. Fortunately, I don't have a gazillion photos. (A few hundred?) I just went to my Gmail account, clicked on photos and am in the process of downloading the photos directly into the computer, avoiding my Android phone.

[Tyson]

They can do everything and much more why they are CIA extension.
They have access to everything on your desktop, phone or car and anything that goes wrong they will leave a Russian IP# and the guilty will to a evil Russian hacker, everybody knows it except US citizens, they are too busy watching Captain Pickard latest adventures in widescreen 4K.

In 2021 Goo decided that I was using his translator too much, so they simply deleted the Translator Icon from my Firefox tollbar. In other episode my original 2009 old email was from Goo, til the day they decided block my password, they were demanding a cel phone number and blah blah blah

Hey!  I like Picard in 4k.

[WGH]

Want to have some fun? Photos taken with a smart phone are geotagged. No more guessing where you took that photo 5 years ago while on vacation. The date, coordinates and map are right at your fingertips.





Zoom out to a map of the world and see every place you ever took a photo during your life. Were you at a vegetarian protest rally and took a photo? The pigs in government now know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOqblSqx_VI


For most of us it's too late. Don't want to be tracked? Put your smart phone in a GoDark Faraday bag. But you will have to put another bag over your head, which by itself will make you look suspicious and have something to hide.

Clearview AI has 30 Billion (with a B) faces in their data base, that's many more faces than people who live on the planet. So for many individuals, there's going to be many different versions of your face. Traffic cameras with license plate readers send you a ticket with your photo at the wheel. Madison Square Garden in New York uses facial recognition to deny admission. Police departments used Clearview AI to identify over 1000 January 6th rioters (and counting). Masks and bandanas don't work either because faces are already on social media and all Clearview AI needs is a snippet.

Too bad Clearview AI wasn't around 80 years ago. My brother and I have a stack of photos my Mom took in the 1940's but we have no idea who the people in the photos are. Grand-kids in the future won't have that problem, upload that old digital photo to Clearview AI and everyone will have a name.


Want to know more? Listen to Terry Gross's interview with Kashmir Hill as they discuss her new book "Your Face Belongs To Us".

Exposing the secretive company at the forefront of facial recognition technology
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/28/1202310781/exposing-the-secretive-company-at-the-forefront-of-facial-recognition-technology

"...if you live in California, Colorado, Virginia or Connecticut, you can go to Clearview AI and get your information deleted. And if you're in Illinois, you're protected by an extra special law that specifically protects your face."


And I like Picard too.

[charmerci]

This is theft. The fact that my photos were no longer in my possession (phone) and that I had to make a COPY of my own photo to download on my computer. Legally, that is theft. I'm thinking of a class action suit.

[WGH]

Legally, that is theft. I'm thinking of a class action suit.

Good luck.

Checking the Terms of Service for Google Photos it states:

    When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.

[artur9]

Similar to why I stopped using Apple's stuff.  There was no way (afaict) to keep local media files local.  It kept replacing them with "pointers into the cloud" and I'd have to re-download them a million times a day.

[JakeJ]

For most of us it's too late. Don't want to be tracked? Put your smart phone in a GoDark Faraday bag. But you will have to put another bag over your head, which by itself will make you look suspicious and have something to hide.

Oh, but what if you paint someone else's face on the bag wearing a medical mask (you know, due to the new covid variant)?  That may trick Clearview.  Certainly would be entertaining.

[charmerci]

Wayne, they REMOVED the photos from the phone. That's NOT in those terms of agreement.

[newzooreview]

Similar to why I stopped using Apple's stuff.  There was no way (afaict) to keep local media files local.  It kept replacing them with "pointers into the cloud" and I'd have to re-download them a million times a day.

I've never experienced anything like this with my Macs, iPads, or iPhones. It's certainly possible to use Box, Dropbox, iCloud, or other cloud services to sync or archive files to the cloud, but that is entirely within the user's control. The only thing I can imagine is that you were using iTunes Match, which is a paid service that needs to be activated. Once you choose to pay for and use iTunes Match, it matches tracks in your music library to an AAC (Apple's compressed file format for music) in the cloud. In iTunes it would mark the files that were matched with a cloud symbol. Nothing was deleted from the computer or uploaded to the cloud: the cloud symbol in iTunes meant that the track was available in the cloud to sync to or play to other devices. So if you used iCloud Match on your iTunes library, you could have a cloud version of your library available on your iPhone as well. Even music you ripped from CD would now be available on the iPhone, for example. I used the service for a while and none of my original, uncompressed files was ever deleted from the iTunes music folder.

Apple also lets you encrypt everything on their servers so only you can access it. I set it up with a set of Yubikeys, so unless someone has one of the physical devices needed to decrypt the files in the cloud, they are unreadable.

Also, you can turn off geotagging for photos on an iPhone. Under "Location Services" you can completely disable access to location data for each app, including "Camera".

Regarding facial (and fingerprint) recognition, the iPhone and Mac store the biometric data only locally, on a separate, dedicated chip. Apple has no fingerprint or facial recognition data derived from using FaceID or TouchID.

[mix4fix]

This is theft. The fact that my photos were no longer in my possession (phone) and that I had to make a COPY of my own photo to download on my computer. Legally, that is theft. I'm thinking of a class action suit.

The bigger issue is how you can't get away from these big tech companies with their monopolies. They should exist to assist our lives, but the have the power to control it. They have become as power as a government. You can't get away from it.

But, I agree with you. Are they paying you for use of the likeness of the photos? What would prevent a photo from being used for the wrong reasons? Daughter ends up on a dating or porn site? Mother ends up on a fraudulent business site?

They are making billions. No reason why they can't pay for the few photos you voluntarily sell to them.

[WGH]

Wayne, they REMOVED the photos from the phone.

Appears you didn't have photo backup turned off. I dunno, maybe you found a bug, there are a lot of settings I don't mess with.

If the photos are now in your computer you can connect a USB cable between the phone and computer and copy the photos back to the phone. This time just transfer a copy of one or two and see how it goes instead of the all-at-once approach.

If the photos show up again in the Google online app then photo backup is still active.

With a USB cable, connect your device to your computer.
On your device, tap the "Charging this device via USB" notification.
Under "Use USB for," select File Transfer.
A file transfer window will open on your computer.

I think of Google as my benevolent personal assistant, the backups keep self-inflicted data disasters from happening and I get great travel and shopping advise with zero downside. I also use CyberGhost8 when necessary.

[WGH]

Data Privacy

https://www.wired.com/search/?q=data+privacy&sort=score+desc


Your New Car Is a Privacy Nightmare
https://www.wired.com/story/your-new-car-privacy-nightmare/

My 1977 Jeep Wagoneer is still for sale, guaranteed zero tracking except when you use a credit card at gas stations.

[charmerci]

Appears you didn't have photo backup turned off. I dunno, maybe you found a bug, there are a lot of settings I don't mess with.

If the photos are now in your computer you can connect a USB cable between the phone and computer and copy the photos back to the phone. This time just transfer a copy of one or two and see how it goes instead of the all-at-once approach...


I think of Google as my benevolent personal assistant, the backups keep self-inflicted data disasters from happening and I get great travel and shopping advise with zero downside. I also use CyberGhost8 when necessary.

I get that they need to be ubiquitous. I like the messages that tell me I've checked in from an exotic location. I've even had my now hardly used Amazon account ask me if I made a $10 purchase that I didn't make! I've accepted their terms to do so. I've always given monster corporations leeway in their legal agreements but this one really crossed a boundary that I'm still emotionally processing.

[Doublej]

One can get a de-googled or a Brax phone and be freed from Google.