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I wonder what their data deletion policies really are for something like Photos. I deleted all my old photos weeks ago but when I pull down the archive of my Go

by mnm1 10y ago

I wonder what their data deletion policies really are for something like Photos. I deleted all my old photos weeks ago but when I pull down the archive of my Google data, they're still there. With such a policy, I could see that data sitting around for years while Google claims that it's in the process of deletion, something that is not actual deletion. Then again, I doubt they actually ever delete anything.

londons_explore 10y ago
In which case, you likley didn't delete them correctly. If you delete them from your device, it doesn't delete the cloud copy. If you delete from an album, it removes the image from the album, but not from your account. Google's privacy policy says has limits to delete user data, and I can assure you they are very strict about that. (Lots of data is deleted within hours, but the multiple days is to ensure all backups of it are gone too) See http://blog.tech-and-law.com/2010/11/google-data-retention-periods-for.html?m=1 http://blog.tech-and-law.com/2010/11/google-data-retention-p...
- petters 10y ago
  This is correct. A deletion should be effective/visible immediately, but it can take some time before all backups are guaranteed to be gone.
  - drieddust 10y ago
    No it isn't google takes your data to tapes as well as offline long term storage. [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNliOm9NtCM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNliOm9NtCM
    - mkj 10y ago
      They could be deleting encryption keys to the tapes? All speculation.
      - puzzle 10y ago
        There was a talk about the backup infrastructure. The speaker talked about the issue of keys, but didn't provide specific details: http://highscalability.com/blog/2014/2/3/how-google-backs-up-the-internet-along-with-exabytes-of-othe.html http://highscalability.com/blog/2014/2/3/how-google-backs-up...
pawadu 10y ago
do you see the actual photos or just the folder thumbnails?
puzzle 10y ago
There are whole teams and pipelines dedicated to making sure data is deleted on all media, tapes included. The long tail can be affected by things such as a machine holding a bunch of GFS chunks from your files that went to the hardware repair queue in the meantime. Those chunks might not even be that useful without the others stored on other machines, but in the general case you can't make guarantees that e.g. they don't hold information that a skilled person could use to identify you.
Klathmon 10y ago
Also, I'm not sure if photos has this, but you also need to "empty the trash" in your drive account after you delete something before it will be actually deleted. IIRC it gets auto-deleted after 30 days or something.

by mnm1 10y ago

londons_explore 10y ago

In which case, you likley didn't delete them correctly. If you delete them from your device, it doesn't delete the cloud copy. If you delete from an album, it removes the image from the album, but not from your account. Google's privacy policy says has limits to delete user data, and I can assure you they are very strict about that. (Lots of data is deleted within hours, but the multiple days is to ensure all backups of it are gone too) See http://blog.tech-and-law.com/2010/11/google-data-retention-periods-for.html?m=1 http://blog.tech-and-law.com/2010/11/google-data-retention-p...

petters 10y ago
This is correct. A deletion should be effective/visible immediately, but it can take some time before all backups are guaranteed to be gone.
- drieddust 10y ago
  No it isn't google takes your data to tapes as well as offline long term storage. [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNliOm9NtCM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNliOm9NtCM
  - mkj 10y ago
    They could be deleting encryption keys to the tapes? All speculation.
    - puzzle 10y ago
      There was a talk about the backup infrastructure. The speaker talked about the issue of keys, but didn't provide specific details: http://highscalability.com/blog/2014/2/3/how-google-backs-up-the-internet-along-with-exabytes-of-othe.html http://highscalability.com/blog/2014/2/3/how-google-backs-up...

pawadu 10y ago

do you see the actual photos or just the folder thumbnails?

puzzle 10y ago

There are whole teams and pipelines dedicated to making sure data is deleted on all media, tapes included. The long tail can be affected by things such as a machine holding a bunch of GFS chunks from your files that went to the hardware repair queue in the meantime. Those chunks might not even be that useful without the others stored on other machines, but in the general case you can't make guarantees that e.g. they don't hold information that a skilled person could use to identify you.

Klathmon 10y ago

Also, I'm not sure if photos has this, but you also need to "empty the trash" in your drive account after you delete something before it will be actually deleted. IIRC it gets auto-deleted after 30 days or something.