Google confirms its latest update can scan all your photos to “use actual images of you and your loved ones” in AI image generation. That means Gemini seeing who you know and what you do. You likely have tens or hundreds of thousands of photos. They’re all exposed if you update.
This is why I recommend using dedicated cameras that don’t connect to the web. Well, one reason, the other reason is because dedicated cameras will always outperform phone cams.
They weren’t already doing this? I’m so glad that I downloaded all my photos and deleted them from Google Photos a few months ago with great hassle, I figured they would abuse them somehow if they hadn’t already so decided to de-google.
Fuck all this shit.
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.
I never activated cloud storage for Google Photos. Whenever I open it for some reason, it complains about it. I need something non-shittified to go through my gallery, just haven’t looked for it very much yet.
Unless you deny network permission for Photos, which I highly recommend.
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.
I just tried and the Google camera app uses an internal browser, not the photos app. I think it’s something you have set on your device.
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).
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).
The phone in question is the HMD Skyline, which gets a 9/10 on iFixit (and is a 0/10 on the software side, which they conveniently left out)
I’ll live without it and probably trade in the repairable phone (lol) but it really is a bummer
Nice. Unfortunately, it does not offer choosing Immich as an image viewer. I guess this is on Immich to fix, though.
I was hoping I’d find something like this one day and of course I find it on Lemmy.
Thank you!
Nice thanks. I was getting annoyed with that and have recently degoogled. The camera appnseems good for pixels though. I might switch back now.
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
it backups the whole phone more or less if one chooses to, if there is alternative to it, i dont have a PIXEL, im using a oneplus. to backup the whole phone and redownload everything?
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.
What’s your budget?
You can still geht really good deals on older used mini pcs
They say you are paranoid after releasing them these news.
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
But I was told to “shake it off” by the writers of ancient lore…
Outkast lied to us??
Thanks, I hate it!
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 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.
I thought they always did this?
I have Fossify Gallery as my default image viewer but I’m still using the pre-installed Google camera app. Am I affected by this scanning? I haven’t gotten around to checking out other camera apps.
We’re talking Personal Intelligence, Google’s latest AI upgrade path which lets users opt-in to connecting Google apps to Gemini. 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.
This is coming first to the U.S. before it rolls out everywhere else. Google assures that “bringing personal details into your images shouldn’t mean compromising on privacy, which is why our core commitments haven’t changed. The Gemini app does not directly train its models on your private Google Photos library.”
But Google does say “we train on limited info, like specific prompts in Gemini and the model’s responses, to improve functionality over time.” That’s why “connecting your Google apps to Gemini remains an opt-in experience that you can adjust in your settings at any time.” It’s opt-in for a reason. Keep that in mind.
Well, I guess I’m safe for the moment… But I also just checked and you can’t prevent Google photos from accessing your files, so that’s concerning…
It looks like I have Google Photos disabled in Settings. Maybe that helps.
I like this one https://f-droid.org/packages/net.sourceforge.opencamera
See if you have a problem with this you should have had a problem with it 15 years ago this isn’t activism this is ignorance poking its head out from under a rock.
People learn and change. Always better late than never.
It’s okay to call things what they are doesn’t make it wrong just because it threatens your intellectual identity.
This system is being built to coordinate the control of our lives…I feel like I’m watching a slow moving disaster powered by the unparalleled mental prowess of the average American.
Decision to move to Immich on my own hardware years ago validated
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.
It was fairly easy with a docker config. What issues did you have?
I just ran their docker compose and it worked out of the box
I can give you a docker compose that will just work if you want, as long as you have a domain name and a ingress controller running. But yes, its not easy.
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 mean I definitely know the difference between WiFi and internet, but I’ve never set up a server and have no idea how to even start.
Just a euphemism to get rid of the common denominator and if you have a desire to learn, you will be going beyond what the average person knows about computers. An immich server is not a particularly difficult thing to achieve. Think about hardware first, where it will run and where you want something running 24/7 (or not?). Then move to OS and software. Once you got it working locally, think about backups and how you will access it from the internet as your next steps.
If you are a “learn as you go” type, you already have a goal and that’s exactly what you need to start.
Sorry I’m being so abstract, but anything else and I’d just be giving you a guide lol.Thanks! That’s very encouraging. I’ve never worked in IT but I’m comfortable tinkering. It’s learning the basics of something brand new to me that will be challenging. I just have to get a grip on the concept.
Not sure if this is helpful or still too technical, but take a look: https://selfhosting.sh/foundations/getting-started/
Oh that looks very useful!! Thank you. I have an old laptop I can experiment on.
I’d not recommend it to anyone who can’t tell the difference between “wifi” and “internet”.
This is such a pet peeve of mine.
I’d not recommend it to anyone who can’t tell the difference between “wifi” and “internet”.
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 saysWe’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.Even when they say it’s optional, it’s never actually optional. They are always enabling it in the background and just preventing you from seeing that.
But even if they actually did use an opt-in system properly, they would still only do that for like 6 months, and then in the next update you’d be forced to use it. And who can stop them? There is no alternative.
No alternative? Immich and Ente are definitely an alternative Google Photos. It ain’t that hard to degoogle these days.
There are services and websites that literally won’t let you change your email, so if you used gmail to sign up, you’re stuck with that email.
Never had a website or service deny an email change in my 25 years of being on the internet. But you can move all the other stuff to a different email and keep the ones you can’t change on your gmail. Still a better choice than giving all your data to google.
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.
Except anyone else that has ever taken my picture can opt-in for me, and I have no way of knowing if they did or not.
Don’t store your photos on other people’s computers. Store them on your computer.
Hope this helps.
and what about off site backup?
If you’re willing to self-host, Immich is a fantastic replacement.
Remember BACKUPS!
Absolutely. One of the really nice things about Immich is it stores your files in a normal folder structure. Nothing obscured, very easy to backup.
Encrypted or your own device.
