Hmm yes, they probably free up the bulk of space and just keep extensive metadata instead: "We don't have the picture, but we know you took one at date, time,

Hmm yes, they probably free up the bulk of space and just keep extensive metadata instead: "We don't have the picture, but we know you took one at date, time, location, make & model, shutter speed & aperture, and we regognized the faces of these 2 users X & Y, and another non-user for whom we have shadow profile Z wwas also tagged."