Comment by GeekyBear
3 days 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.
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?
> user’s phone backs up photos to the company’s cloud.
I never enable cloud backups, because it means my shit is sent somewhere.
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.
>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.
2 replies →
It's not on by default. It asks when you first add your account to Android.
> 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.