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.
Additional tip: You can use the universal android debloater tool to remove built in apps on your phone.
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:
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.
Pcloud has a backdoor. By default end to end encryption is off (and it can be turned off again)
Oh, do you think there’s any solution without a backdoor?
If you are worried, you can use the extra encryption: “pCloud offers an optional encryption service, providing zero-knowledge client-side encryption. Files placed in the Crypto folder are encrypted before leaving the user’s device and remain inaccessible even to pCloud. This feature is offered as a paid add-on.”
And if you are totally paranoid, then encrypt what you use, yourself.
Yes. Mega and Proton Drive and Tresorit are always client side encrypted. There is no backdoor like pCloud has.
You just keep believing that. :-)
I own an Android phone, for a single app I need to have access to. It’s a Redmi something. I could not find a way to just uninstall their own ‘Gallery’ app nor the Google Photos app so I removed their access to any file. I hope this is enough but I don’t know that.
I thought Android was all about choice (against iOS, which is my default phone) but this was not very convincing. I may have missed a way to easily uninstall any app, though? I would like to replace them with f-droid alternative apps so there won’t be any risk they access the little data I’ve stored on that phone.
Its not enough. Gapps has root access. You have to reinstall the OS. By default, new installs won’t include gapps
It’s a Redmi something.
If it is still using the default OS (HyperOS / MiUI), you can uninstall both the Xiaomi and Google Photos apps. The easiest method nowadays is to install Universal Android Debloater on to your computer (any OS), connect your phone to it, enable USB debugging on the phone, and remove the apps you don’t want.
Does it allow you to remove gapps?
Yes of course.
Edit: Lot of third-party apps rely on Google Play Services, so removing this is not recommended.
Removing it is definitely recommended. Those apps are recommend to avoid
Thx, I’ll check that tool. Not an expert, so you know ;)
It has a GUI, and clearly shows what apps can be safely removed versus whst apos are load-bearing.
Update: I tested it, and it seems to be working as expected. Now, I just need to make sure what apps on the phone correspond to those listed since they don’t display the same name and I would not want to remove anything I should not. Thx again ;)
Ah, sorry. On the phone, open Settings and go Apps -> Manage Apps. Then choose an app and click the three dots on the top right. Select App Info, and look under App Name. This is equivalent to what UAD shows.
Thx! I will do that :)
why not Canta?
Oh that’s nice. No need for the computer then.
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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
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”.
It’s still probably illegal (violation of GDPR). They can’t hide that shit in a ToS without it being off by default.
That is the point, not a big deal to block this in the EU, due to the GDPR, but for users in the US it’s sadly different, there Google can almost do what it want.
Just change your locale to EU. Boom, they follow GDPR (or suffer massive legal and financial consequences, if not)
That is the point, or change direct o EU alternatives to store your photos and data, eg. Filen, 10 GB for free, client-side encrypted, no-knowledge, redundant storing, OpenSource, selfhosteable. All servers are located in Tier III-IV, ISO 27001-certified data centers within Germany.
The lesson here is don’t deal with rapists if you care not to get raped.
This is the stage of priavcy in 2025 folks.
It is victims obligation to avoid the rapist and if it rapes youz it is your fault
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Yes, and they and apple keep saying it’s all done locally. Because trust me bro!
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What proof do you have that you in fact pressed no ?
Also, didn’t you press I agree to anything that gives google indemnity against any of this when you first turned on the phone ?
I think you would need a complete video recording from fresh firmware wipe to the action you describe happening, to establish it is or isn’t happening.
Google will have make sure that proving them in the wrong takes a whole lot of effort
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.
I disabled the gallery and downloaded a different one.
Is there a more recently updated version of this? This is two years old
https://github.com/Universal-Debloater-Alliance/universal-android-debloater-next-generation
Not sure why the dev dosnt link the old project to the new.
Thank you very much
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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Fyi she asked for them and we got married last Friday after 5,5 years together and she sent me a few pics which i didn’t keep or download on my end but it was over WhatsApp so they are already in the system asshole.
Yeah man, you gotta use SimpleX or Wire or something safer than WhatsApp for nudes.
We use Signal at the moment, we haven’t used WhatsApp between us at least for almost 5 years.
✊
Email their data protection officer and the government. They may get fined hundreds of millions of dollars for this
Lol. Yeah and trump will get prosecuted for raping minors.
We’re talking about the EU, not some fascist country in America
Oh I’m sorry. What I meant to say was that Tony Blair will be prosecuted for war crimes
And again we’re talking about the EU, not a fascist country in the British Isles.
UK was EU when it happened.
You must be new around here lol
You must not read the news?
U is naive
Exactly. Luigi #2 is the only way to even temporarily stop this.
Where’s the article to this story?
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.
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.
Op should deff fight back but let’s temper the expectations here… Realistically nothing will happen.
But yes it should be documented
Google specially has been fined over a billion dollars. GDPR law suits and financial consequences are very realistic
In FY 23-24 google made over $340B I dont think they mind
Of course they mind. Because they changed their behavior. Else, the billion dollar fines would repeat over-and-over.
Sure child
google photos goes omnom
