I’ve gotten a new phone and setting it up for the past few days - a Fairphone 5 with Android installed. So obviously, this means I can’t escape Googles clutches. Sure, whatever.
I have been VERY adamant about pressing “No” on all prompts, that try to get me to try something out or use some dumb service. I do not want any AI tool or similar to go through my files.
Yet, while perousing the depths of my system settings, I realized Google Photos was using a suspicous amount of storage. Somehow, it had “synchronized” ALL my locally saved pictures - this included pictures of my vacations, my drivers license, private pictures I would have rather not shared, and so on…
And while checking the Google Photos App for the damage done, obviously it had already automatically generated “previews” and “albums” for me, neatly organized.
IT HAD AUTOMATICALLY ANALYSED MY DRIVERS LICENSE AND SAVED IT INTO AN ALBUM CALLED “Identity-related”
How the fuck is this legal? I am so mad at myself right now. I’m usually so fuckin cautious about denying any sort of pop-up and setting all settings as strictly as possible.
So obviously I just had to spent 2 hours figuring out how to turn this “synchronization” off, and how to delete all photos in google photos - spoiler alert: There is no “Delete All” button. You have to manually select every single fucking image.
Sorry for the rant, I hope it’s not too off-topic. I’m just so mad right now.
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Google Photos fails to include a libre software license text file. We do not control it, anti-libre software.
What did you expect? LMAOO
If you have a Fairphone then you can escape Google, Fairphones are one of the few phones that support third party ROMs. If they weren’t so expensive I would buy one myself.
https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/FP5/
Ya. I’m sorry for you.
Problem is, even if you delete the Images, Google has already scraped them for info on you and used your Google account and phone number to tie it all together to further its data aggregation profile on you.
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Yes, and they and apple keep saying it’s all done locally. Because trust me bro!
Sorry for your shitty situation.
Try this. No root needed. I’m pretty much google free on FP5 (and others).
https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater
Removes most google apps and services.
Also try not to ever sign into google on your phone directly. Use Aurora Store, DAVX, Thunderbird etc.
Is there a more recently updated version of this? This is two years old
https://github.com/Universal-Debloater-Alliance/universal-android-debloater-next-generation
Not sure why the dev dosnt link the old project to the new.
Thank you very much
I disabled the gallery and downloaded a different one.
What proof do you have that you in fact pressed no ?
Also, didn’t you press I agree to anything that gives google indemnity against any of this when you first turned on the phone ?
I think you would need a complete video recording from fresh firmware wipe to the action you describe happening, to establish it is or isn’t happening.
Google will have make sure that proving them in the wrong takes a whole lot of effort
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fairphones can also run custom roms. with calyxos the bootloader can even be relocked for security, it’s done by the installer. that way google services are optional
Email their data protection officer and the government. They may get fined hundreds of millions of dollars for this
Lol. Yeah and trump will get prosecuted for raping minors.
We’re talking about the EU, not some fascist country in America
Oh I’m sorry. What I meant to say was that Tony Blair will be prosecuted for war crimes
And again we’re talking about the EU, not a fascist country in the British Isles.
UK was EU when it happened.
You must be new around here lol
You must not read the news?
U is naive
Exactly. Luigi #2 is the only way to even temporarily stop this.
Where’s the article to this story?
There’s no article - this is something that happened to me personally, today. I needed an outlet and wanted some advice what to do about this, and I’m really happy about the responses I’ve gotten.
Yes, but you’re just screaming into an ephemeral void.
You could actually make google pay for this if you wrote an article about this on substack and then linked to it here.
Google has already paid over a billion dollars for GDPR violations. They do change their behavior as a result of such reporting and legal consequences.
Op should deff fight back but let’s temper the expectations here… Realistically nothing will happen.
But yes it should be documented
Google specially has been fined over a billion dollars. GDPR law suits and financial consequences are very realistic
Sure child
In FY 23-24 google made over $340B I dont think they mind
Of course they mind. Because they changed their behavior. Else, the billion dollar fines would repeat over-and-over.
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Event like this is what got me radicalized
google photos goes omnom
Well, next time, make sure you have your settings set correctly - test with a few pictures at first…
I use pCloud, and it works great for my needs. I have deleted everything I had ever uploaded to Google, besides the simplest backup from my mobile phone, so I can easily restore it, if my phone breaks and I need a new one.
Pcloud has a backdoor. By default end to end encryption is off (and it can be turned off again)
Oh, do you think there’s any solution without a backdoor?
If you are worried, you can use the extra encryption: “pCloud offers an optional encryption service, providing zero-knowledge client-side encryption. Files placed in the Crypto folder are encrypted before leaving the user’s device and remain inaccessible even to pCloud. This feature is offered as a paid add-on.”
And if you are totally paranoid, then encrypt what you use, yourself.
Yes. Mega and Proton Drive and Tresorit are always client side encrypted. There is no backdoor like pCloud has.
You just keep believing that. :-)