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.
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).
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
I went back to Polaroid for my nudes.
Can I see?
I've gone even further back, having mine painted on Greek pottery
I rub mine out with charcoal and tree sap all over the wall.
Just don't shake them after they come out
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.
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.
Deal with the stuff you have control over. You'll never remove it all, but remove what you still can.
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
Yeah, we are all fucked. I'm still not going to give Google my data willingly.
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.
I appreciate the sentiment. One of the core conflicts I've had with family over the past couple decades has been their unrepentant usage of my data on these platforms. As a result, I never take or share pictures. They've responded over the years by casting suspicion on me, for not capitulating to the status quo, and for wanting to understand the nuts-and-bolts of technology. I've never shared mine nor others' data. I worked in the data economy for about a decade and still, they'd dismiss my well-founded concerns in favor of corporate propaganda and the ego-dopamine loop. "What do you have to hide?" Dumb fucks.
Really pisses me off how flippant and careless people are towards big tech. Yet they'll bitch and moan about how awful these companies are while forking over all their data for free.
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.
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.
Pandora's Tech Box opened long ago. It's already way too late.
Time to finally finish setting up my immich instance properly.
Time to invert the colors of some extra weird porn and stuff my Google drive to the brim.
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.
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 says
We’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.
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.
An AI update that is 'opt in' and not 'opt out'?
Truly Shocking!
For now! Probably a legal requirement.
Nothing stopped github from forcing me to opt out of sharing all my code with their AI, so I don't think its a legal thing?
It's also opt in. Although I'd be surprised if anyone commenting here is actually using google photos in the first place.
Do we really trust Google's word though? They already use machine learning on your photos to support the search feature
Alright, I already transfered the pics to my Immich a month ago anyway, time to delete my shit outright...
How did you transfer them? Was it an annoying process?
takeout.google.com
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.
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.
If you install immich in your homelab, you can just transfer all the images off your device very easily with the immich app.
Probably the only way to keep them private from big tech. But the long term solution is to not use the official Android or Apple systems and to root your phone and install cyanogenmod or something similar without Google apps.
But that means some apps wont work at all, so thats the price to pay for that freedom.
Or you can just buy a separate camera and stop using your phone for that.
Immich is a nightmare to install.
I've had zero problems installing it and exposing it on one of my subdomains via nginx. I thought it was one of the easiest things to install and configure. Like, no errors or unknowns when installing.
That being said, this isn't something the average user will be or even should be doing. Its a niche product for the tech literate, not an alternative for what cloud providers are offering. I'd not recommend it to anyone who can't tell the difference between "wifi" and "internet".
I'd not recommend it to anyone who can't tell the difference between "wifi" and "internet".
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
