- cross-posted to:
- privacy@programming.dev
- cross-posted to:
- privacy@programming.dev
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.
tell me how to opt-out
from what I understood, you have to opt in. so by default, Gemini will not have access to your gallery. It’s just matter of time tho when will Google force this upon it’s users imo
ok thanks
uninstall it or uninstall all app updates and nuke the app data, then switch to local storage and fossify gallery or something
or throw out your phone and buy a fairphone or a phone compatible with grapheneOS
the nuclear option ngl, but my plan: am just gonna wait for my Rooted A55(stuck at one ui 7 cause i dont want to get rid of bootloader unlocking,rooted my phone so am unable to update) until it breaks, i cannot wait for the grapheneOS powered Motorola.(i hope it sells in my country!)
Alright, I already transfered the pics to my Immich a month ago anyway, time to delete my shit outright…
Yeah. Because Google would never keep the images anyway.
Yeah, but at least it’ll all be outdated and nothing new is added. And hey, maybe in the future we could get laws that force them to delete anything older than a certain date. Would leaving them there be any better?
Easier to ask for the whole internet to be reset in order to destroy all the garbage data that’s accumulating at the bottom
How did you transfer them? Was it an annoying process?
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.
Thank you! I didn’t realize you could just do a Takeout. I started the process last night and hopefully will be able to transfer them soon. It was completed relatively quickly, so I wonder if it will really have everything…
My takeout had everything, even random shit I should’ve deleted forever ago lol. I’d just check for the most important pics (weddings, vacations, etc.) that you would actually be devestated to lose. You can always wait a month or so before deleting to verify your media transferred fine.
I went ahead and deleted everything. Ended up being about ~60 GB, since I only ever used standard compressed storage. It was weird going back through all those photos, but at least I can save them locally now.
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.
Really weird, I’ve never had a takeout download limit or issue; does it fail on both .tgz and .zip versions? Maybe try just outright downloading a few batches of pics at a time and then uploading them to Immich.
I’ll have to give it another try and report back. I think it is like 2TB total so I didn’t have enough time to get it on my 100 Mbps. And then some of them failing and having to restart was not helping.
These intrusive app rollouts are why they want to disable open source repositories. I have google photos disabled, and use gallery from fdroid. I have to manually leave the camera to look at photos but at least if I take a pic in private it probably stays private.
Pandora’s Tech Box opened long ago. It’s already way too late.
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?
I think they’re considered differently in law. Your employer can claim all your works while you’re employed, and you agreed to the terms of GitHub. I’m pretty sure they can lay claim to your work as well.
Your likeness has more legal protection, I believe.
Me reading this article top to bottom

Because fuck you that’s why
Time for the sheeple harvest
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.
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.
I am 99% certain the author was writing with a purposefully sardonic tone.
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).
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
0/10 on the software side
Sadly to be assumed these days unless proven otherwise, that or hardcore trapped in a walled garden…
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!
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.
Unless you deny network permission for Photos, which I highly recommend.
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.
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 went back to Polaroid for my nudes.
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.
Can I see?
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??
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.
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.
Soon google will geomap your home interior, and have a full inventory of all your possessions. Should you resist in any way?
Say, if phones started creating a 3d map everywhere they went, and you obviously disable it. There will, at some point, be someone who enters your house and unwittingly map it out.
This isn’t about personal resistance but the futility of it as the general populace neither cares, knows or put any thought into it.
I use opt out strings in my SSID, blurred the house on gmaps, etc. Last year noticed some random person put it on mapillary, there’s other services that require other optout strings. That’s just scratching the surface.
Things are happening that I don’t even know about, let alone respond to them.
Yeah, we are all fucked. I’m still not going to give Google my data willingly.
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
DSLRs only use mirrors for the viewfinder. Would appear just fine to the sensor
Ah but you see, I’m a Clown Juggalo Vampire
Wouldn’t face paint just make you look like the invisible man in photos?
Don’t know, but in mirrors it looks funky. And I only have a Minolta Maxxum 7000. They don’t build then like they used to.
I imagine AI finds it even weirder.
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.













