Technology

@[email protected] @[email protected] Sorry, but this is kind of misinformation, it's not "photos taken with Pixel phones", but the Google Photos app in general. The camera app still has a toggle for it. Not even going to mention how almost all modern apps nowadays automatically remove location data from images while uploading. You are still free to delete it from photos using other (and better) gallery apps too.

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic stop using google software.

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic I ran into this a while back.

1. It's not new
2. It's not specific to Pixel photos.

The app and cloud service just don't have support for modifying the EXIF tags, so if *any* camera has added GPS data, you can't use Google Photos to change or remove it.

The estimated location is stored in the Google Photos database and can be modified within the app.

You *can* turn GPS off in the camera app.

@ajsadauskas
In the long run, only running or renting your own, private #cloud solves this (and a few other problems). Happily using #Nextcloud and #OpenSource photo editors - will never go back to Google.

@technology @pluralistic

@ajsadauskas
Thanks for this! I use simple camera from F-droid and checked the settings in panic. Thankfully it does not save exif data by default!

@technology @pluralistic

@ajsadauskas
How has this anything to do with Pixel phones? As I understand it, this is about the Google Photo service. You can't edit exif data in it, and location data is part is exif. You can, however, turn off location data in your phone, or edit exif data in an external app. Or am I mistaken?
@technology @pluralistic @samuel

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic Crazy. first thing you turn off is the option location data get added to a photo. Or does that still work ?

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic Not to defend Google or anything, but its worth noting that you can still disable location data in the camera app itself.

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic I'd recommend @GrapheneOS for Pixel owners

I'm tired of this Google/Apple duopoly in the mobile computing space. We need a noncommercial option. I've been daily driving a Linux phone for almost 2 years now. Originally a PinePhone, then a PinePhone Pro, then a OnePlus 6T, now back to the PinePhone Pro. The ecosystem is still in its early days and a lot of things don't work, but it's so nice to have a phone that I control rather than a phone that controls me. Google used to be awesome, Android used to be awesome, but they've been getting progressively worse for a decade or more.

@ajsadauskas

Is this a change? My initial reading is that since this help page is only about some google-photos-specific metadata, it can't mess with the exif data, if any, inside the image. Did Google photos used to provide a way to remove exif data? It would seem like a useful function, but was it ever there?

(Note that I work for Google, but not anywhere near Photos or Android, and speak only for myself etc etc.)

@technology

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic Google claims a religious exemption that trumps your privacy concerns: "The data from your camera is sacred to us and our business model, and we, via our operating systems and applications, strictly forbid you from profaning that data."

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic doesn't that just mean that the exit data editing is not possible using Photos app. Instead of "preventing" geo location removal. I never thought exit data editing was part of Photos app. Or any gallery app in that case

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic @val Also I would argue that “estimated location” is the more privacy invasive feature here as this means that Google allows itself to basically reconstruct a private information (location) I might have purposefully removed (or disabled in the camera) to begin with 😕

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic this isn't necessarily addressing the issue/concern but I urge everyone to use an exif stripper before sharing a photo. Scrambled eggsif is doing that in a convenient way, share to the app and it will allow you to share to the destination of your choice (piping). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jarsilio.android.scrambledeggsif

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic I have the current Pixel. Updated Android this morning. The camera app still has a toggle for this.

Sounds like this is more about not being able to remove the metadata in the file in Google Photos, only the metadata stored by the app (outside the file) itself. I'm not sure Google Photos had a way to strip the metadata from the file before.

@pluralistic @ajsadauskas @technology I wonder how that interacts with GDPR. I'm don't think this is PII, but there must be something in scope.

@ajsadauskas

@technology @pluralistic

Well,.good thing you can put Graphene OS on a Pixel

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic install grapheneOS. 😁

Thank god I no longer use their service after their unlimited option was cut. I was only using it as a backup solution, as I still prefer keeping stuff on my computer, rather than uploading to the cloud. I use #Shotwell to manage my photos and before that, I was using Windows Live Gallery while I was still on Windows (If anyone remembers). It was a really powerful and underrated piece of software, albeit proprietary, that was doing pretty much the same things as Google Photos is doing now - but locally, on the computer that you own (yea, I do sound like I am older than I actually am, maybe I am, in some regards, haha - but reading all these news about how Google is manipulating user data is just infuriating).

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic @val Don’t want to defend Google here but this looks more like “we don’t change the image’s EXIF data stored *inside* the binary image file. Estimated location can be edited because it is stored outside that file”

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic

Better make sure you turn off location data and location estimates in your settings before it's too late.

Google Photos > Settings > Location > Location Sources

@ajsadauskas
can you use a different photo app?
@technology @pluralistic

OK first thanks for sharing this as a heads up for those out of the loop.

However, here's my hot takes:

• This sounds like it's behaviour of the stock ROM and/or the stock photo management app. So the clear solutions are to flash LineageOS, or use another gallery app from... F-Droid or anything else (Simple Gallery hello?)
• Turn off your Location permissions when not in use. "It's annoying to do that"? Pick your poison then.
• Users fault for buying a Pixel... which is LITERALLY a Google product...

"It’s enshitification in action." It's literally Google, it's been shittified a loooong time.

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic this is going to backfire on them.

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic when using stock pixel android, Google does not need the location from Fotos to have your location data.
On the other side, Google is actually building pretty cool things still under NDA to prevent location data to leak to other apps
.
If you don't trust Google, don't use Android with Google services. It always has been that simple.