Is Google Photos storing your pictures without your knowledge?
Google Photos automatically backs up and uploads photos from your Android phone 鈥� even after you delete the app.
Nashville Business Journal鈥檚 that after deleting the app and downloading it again five weeks later, he found Google Photos had stored the 鈥渉undreds鈥� of pictures he had taken in the interim, while the app was no longer on his phone, and had posted them to its website.
A says photos are 鈥渁utomatically backed up and synced, so you can have peace of mind that your photos are safe,鈥� but does not mention that to stop Google from backing up photos, users have to do more than uninstall the app.
After reaching out to Google, Arnott said he received an email from a representative saying 鈥淭he backup was as intended.鈥� He said he was told if users wanted to stop Google from automatically backing up photos, regardless of if the app has been uninstalled, they must change their settings in Google Play Services.
鈥淎 reasonable person would expect none of my photos to ever end up on Google鈥檚 web site unless I somehow uploaded them another way,鈥� Arnott wrote.
He added, 鈥淗ow many people have been photographed and now subjected to Google鈥檚 recognition technology without the photographer鈥檚 knowledge?鈥�
Although it appeared that the Google backup had not made the recovered photos publicly visible, Arnott said he was 鈥渦ncomfortable鈥� that Google had been able to obtain them at all.
鈥淜eeping an app functional even after it鈥檚 been 鈥榰ninstalled鈥� is deception,鈥� he wrote.
Google to TechCrunch saying it was 鈥渨orking to make the messaging clearer as well as provide users who uninstall the Photos app an easy way to also disable backup.鈥�
For users who have deleted the app from their Android phones and want to turn off the automatic backup service, the Google statement said to 鈥済o to Google Settings, select Google Photos backup and toggle the switch at the top to 鈥榦ff.鈥欌��
