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submitted 1 day ago by RealM__@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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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[-] LordCrom@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago

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.

[-] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

Yes, and they and apple keep saying it's all done locally. Because trust me bro!

[-] GlenRambo@jlai.lu 4 points 10 hours ago

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.

[-] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

I disabled the gallery and downloaded a different one.

[-] tradingcronjobsforsmack@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

I'm sorry. There's really no way to undo this. Grieving and and moving on is the only option, and I am not being sarcastic. If my privacy was violated like that by google, I would be very upset and would grieve. Even if you complain, they won't remove it from AI training or whatever they intend to do, even if they lie and say they will. Librem 5's have no google in them if you want to switch to something else. FuriLabs also make a Debian smartphone.

[-] quick_snail@feddit.nl 9 points 15 hours ago

Email their data protection officer and the government. They may get fined hundreds of millions of dollars for this

[-] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

Lol. Yeah and trump will get prosecuted for raping minors.

[-] quick_snail@feddit.nl 1 points 7 hours ago

We're talking about the EU, not some fascist country in America

[-] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

Oh I'm sorry. What I meant to say was that Tony Blair will be prosecuted for war crimes

[-] quick_snail@feddit.nl 4 points 16 hours ago

Where's the article to this story?

[-] RealM__@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago

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.

[-] quick_snail@feddit.nl 6 points 15 hours ago

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.

[-] butsbutts@lemmy.ml 7 points 18 hours ago

google photos goes omnom

[-] infjarchninja@lemmy.ml 5 points 17 hours ago

I feel for you.

training ai on your photo's without even asking. wankers

I have just copied my elderly friends 2000 photos from google photos to my desktop, then deleted all of them from her phone. Had to do it with my browser, they only allow you to delete 30 photos at a time on the phone. tossers.

Installed droid-ify, installed lawnchair, fossify gallery, fossify messages, fossify contacts. perfect.

imported her photos back on to her phone:

Intentionally painful but its done.

bring on ADB, I have deleted everything with a G in it.

first one: I wrote a simple little bash script for these:

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.chrome

okgoogle, xgoogle, Gmail, calender, Calendar Sync, videos, googlequicksearchbox, youtube, music, Google Contacts Sync, googleassistant, Google Digital Well Being App, Google Duo, Google Pay, google photos and Google Drive with adb so its doesnt happen again.

This poor women is 84, WTF does she know about modern tech, google are tossers

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I would get rid of fairphone rom and install another rom:

unlock your bootloader. easy guide from Fairphone.

https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/10492476238865-How-to-unlock-and-re-lock-the-bootloader

then install lineage or E/os custom rom

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/FP5/

https://doc.e.foundation/devices/FP5

[-] lefaucet@slrpnk.net 9 points 19 hours ago

It's kinda a pain to use 'cause so many apps rely on Google services, so those need to be replaced with alternatives, but e/OS is installable and is supported by Fairphone

https://community.e.foundation/t/install-e-os-v2-on-fairphone-5-my-little-guide/58260

[-] Zerush@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Not against your will, you accepted this and more in the TOS of your account. But you can avoid it in the permission settings in your phone.

The second biggest lie in Internet: "I've read the Privacy Policies and Terms of Service" the first one "We respect the privacy of the user".

https://neal.fun/dark-patterns/

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[-] Eternal192@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 19 hours ago

Have some dic pics that were uploaded that i sent to my gf when we started dating and i'm glad i didn't delete them because now they have to look at my junk every time they decide to go snooping around where they shouldn't.

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[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 4 points 17 hours ago

that's why i straight up delete proprietary corporate apps now whenever possible, even if i don't use them.

they WILL do what they want unprompted, then make it difficult to undo.

[-] foremanguy92_@lemmy.ml 13 points 22 hours ago

Use /e/OS officially supported on fair phone 5

[-] funkycarrot@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 15 hours ago

/e/OS is a good option to regain privacy from Google, but arguably does some things worse in terms of security than stock.

You can find a good comparison here.

For the Fairphone 5, I'd recommend CalyxOS as soon as they're back from their hiatus. In the meantime, might as well stick with stock.

[-] nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de 46 points 1 day ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Yes, this happens. Even if you turn off all the syncing etc, they will shoot an update and all your settings will revert to default. This has happened with my father's phone a lot.

And even if you keep all these settings off, they are still scanning all photos to check for CSAM.

I highly recommend deGoogling your phone. If you cannot install a custom ROM, check out Universal Android Debloater. There are many sources for degoogling your life. Check out c/degoogle on Lemmy (I forgot the instance name, just search for it). ~~Or if you want we have small group on Signal for deGoogling related talks, DM me and I can share the link to join. (Signal does require a phone number to register, but since usernames are a thing your phone number will not be available publicly.)~~ That group link is disabled, but I can share other group links like Linux and FOSS, or other privacy related groups.

[-] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 20 points 1 day ago

There not even checking for CSAM

That would be near impossIble considering the tech. Even on a normal portrait is hard to judge the age on. Let alone fotos with more complex perspectives and only some body parts visible.

What they are doing is using hashes of specific real pictures that the police know are commonly shared.

Theoretically it could catch some careless content consuming offenders. The worst offenders, that produce new material, are beyond the scope.

But also, obvious what google gets is just the hashcodes and not the actual pics. If the police gave google a hash to target for pics of vances bald head or (trans-positive) memes who would know?

[-] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

False positives are a thing. They do scan all your photos for csam. Poorly.

We know this because of the article during the pandemic when a dude sent a photo of his son's dick to a doctor (it had an infection and the doctor asked to see it). Dude lost access to his entire google account. Lost everything. Emails, files, everything. It wasn't a hash.

[-] nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

There was a news some time ago, that a man was arrested for clicking nude pictures of children, later it was found out that he was sending pictures of his child to a doctor for diagnosis. How did that happen?

I'll link the source if I find it.

Update:

NYTimes - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveillance-toddler-photo.html

Paywall removed - https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveillance-toddler-photo.html

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[-] s38b35M5@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

I got sick of GP when they announced AI learning on user photos (or actually that's just the last straw). I use a combination of these two apps now:

https://f-droid.org/packages/org.fossify.gallery/

https://f-droid.org/packages/io.ente.photos.fdroid/

[-] Core_of_Arden@lemmy.ml 4 points 18 hours ago

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.

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[-] Lojcs@piefed.social 14 points 1 day ago

Same thing happened to me, and there is a delete all button. Go to Google photos > top right profile pic > backup is off (or whatever it says when it's on) > top right gear > undo backup for this device.

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 5 points 20 hours ago

That all sounds like on-device behavior. You didn't say anything about it actually being uploaded.

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[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 7 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Faschist company with a faschist government. Stop asking for legal, take control, go Open Source.

If you were using Photos as a photo roll app you need to stay angry at yourself a while longer. That's on you when you should know you cannot trust the G. Don't grant an app permissions to photos and videos that could sync it to the cloud. And as another precaution, don't keep sensitive pictures in the DCIM folder. If I have to take pictures of sensitive documents like that I disable WiFi (sync set up on WiFi only), take the picture, move it to a folder that's never backed up elsewhere on my phone, and then turn WiFi back on.

You are not normal because you care about these things. The normal user doesn't care and that's who they are catering for. I'm not excusing their behavior (I don't like it either) and at the same time you need to be more on your toes.

I'm planning to move to Ente this year when my Google cloud subscription runs out. Not looking forward to the work it entails but to the [paints face blue] FREEDOM!

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this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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