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.

    • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      fairphones can also run custom roms. with calyxos the bootloader can even be relocked for security, it’s done by the installer. that way google services are optional

  • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    Check out Aves Libre on F-Droid

    I had to ditch Google Photos app because of my paranoia, about this exact same thing that happened to you.

  • nelson@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    If you disable Google photos storage access you don’t even have a camera roll :/

    That’s how embedded the damn thing is

    • Novaling@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      Oh damn really? I was just about to tell OP why didn’t they just delete Google Photos and use something like Aves instead. But if disabling/deleting the app disables camera roll then that’s total bullshit. That should be like lawsuit worthy, I shouldn’t have to use your app to have pictures, especially when that service is doing sneaky uploads.

      • nelson@lemmy.world
        0·
        3 months ago

        I just checked,

        google photos has permanent access to photos and videos. If you disable the app the camera roll no longer works. I get “activity not found”.

        Maybe with a FOSS camera app it might still work? I haven’t tried.

        Edit: and that is the only permission which it has ( photos and videos ). Everything else ( location, contacts, … ) is not allowed. But that one permission is auto permanently allowed.

    • Quibblekrust@thelemmy.clubEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      You don’t really need a camera roll. Just use your normal gallery after taking pics.

      You can disable Google Photos outright. No need to play with permissions.

  • Autonomous User@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Google Photos fails to include a libre software license text file. We do not control it, anti-libre software.

    What did you expect? LMAOO

  • Seefra 1@lemmy.zip
    0·
    3 months ago

    a Fairphone 5 with Android installed. So obviously, this means I can’t escape Googles clutches

    If you have a Fairphone then you can escape Google, Fairphones are one of the few phones that support third party ROMs. If they weren’t so expensive I would buy one myself.

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

  • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.websiteEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    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!

    • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      does it even request your permission? I mean, isn’t it granted by default? It’s been a long time I factory reset a typic consumer phone brand

  • Lojcs@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    3 months 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.

  • AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip
    0·
    3 months ago

    I was gonna say something about postmarketOS, but it’s not ready yet. Mobian is also not ready for it either.

    So next best option if you really wanna get rid of this type of stuff is either rooting your device to remove what you don’t need or flashing something like GrapheneOS or a different OS.

    But I’d consider that a last resort if you already have everything set up just right and have things you don’t wanna lose and can’t backup easily. That, and if it’s a work related device, you’re screwed.

  • LordCrom@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months 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.