7 ms·

To be honest, $2/month isn't that unreasonable from a useful service. I would definitely class Google Photos as useful, especially its ability to search for pic

To be honest, $2/month isn't that unreasonable from a useful service. I would definitely class Google Photos as useful, especially its ability to search for pictures. I personally use iCloud, and back everything to a Synology.

chomp 5y ago
It is not, however for some of us, there was an implicit “I let you datamine my images, you host them” relationship. Having to pay google tips the scales, so why not spend your $2 on a more privacy oriented service?
- stevage 5y ago
  Because most competitors are much more than $2/mo.
- weird-eye-issue 5y ago
  I love being able to search random things like "Honda" or "waffles" to find pictures from years ago in a few seconds. I use it often now that I can do it
- smolyeet 5y ago
  Because the people willing to pay Google for their service don't mind the use of their pictures to better their services elsewhere. Google didn't get to be where it was without us , and the fight for privacy isn't worth it for some (most) people. Alternatives usually involve self hosting, trusting a privacy focused service , or not doing it at all. It's tiring. I respect the effort , but In a lot of ways it feels like going backwards.
  - Superblazer 5y ago
    The fight for privacy is absolutely worth it. Those people have no idea about what they are getting into, they don't know anything. That is not something to base upon.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - kevml 5y ago
      To assume that they don’t know “what they are getting into” is a bit patriarchal.
      - Superblazer 5y ago
        You think a random person who would never look or care about tech would understand the privacy issues? Absolutely not. All they'd know is what the companies say and advertise.
        kayoone 5y ago
        I don't agree, especially due to massive media coverage around these issues even my mom who knows nothing about tech is very hesitant to sign up with new services and existing ones changing policies and what not. Not everyone understands the privacy issues deeply, but they are at least aware and in many cases more careful than say 5 years ago.
  - taauji 5y ago
    That is exactly how google wanted it to be. Thy lied made everyone attached to the technology and now milking off it. Moreover I would not like google to invade my privacy if I am paying for it. I am paying and also my privacy is being breached. that doesn't seem fair
- Jabbles 5y ago
  What kind of datamining? I suppose we have no way of actually knowing if it's true, but Google does say they don't use Photos data for ads: As always, we don’t sell your information to anyone, and we don’t use information in apps where you primarily store personal content—such as Gmail, Drive, Calendar and Photos—for advertising purposes, period. https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/keeping-private-information-private/ https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/keeping-priva...
  - dolmen 5y ago
    > As always, we don’t sell your information to anyone, and we don’t use information in apps where you primarily store personal content—such as Gmail, Drive, Calendar and Photos—for advertising purposes, period. As always with privacy policies, the information is in what is NOT said. 1. They don't sell to anyone. But what giving away for free? 2. They don't use personal content for advertising purposes. But what about other purposes than advertising? For example applying face or location recognition in photos to establish a profile that is used in a fraud detection service in Google Pay?
    - Jabbles 5y ago
      1 seems unlikely to me - why would Google do that? It would always be in exchange for something, which is pretty much selling. 2 seems more plausible.
      - croon 5y ago
        1) I trust them when they say they don't sell it, technically. However they probably do sell information/meta data they themselves have mined from my data, which they probably claim is harmless and de-personalized.
      - beagle3 5y ago
        FB effectively gave data away to app developers (e.g. Cambridge analytica). They got something in return - as they do with all their partners - but this is not generally considered a sale, and often not even a trade.
- patrickaljord 5y ago
  At $2 per month they are probably still subsidizing you with datamining.
fomine3 5y ago
I'm fine my photos are managed by Google, so I signed up 100GB plan of Google One. Google Opinion Rewards provides me enough money to fulfill the annual fee.
- spamalot159 5y ago
  How are you getting so many surveys? I can't seem to get more than one every few months!
  - fomine3 5y ago
    I'm in Japan. I sometimes (about 30%) receive survey about payment method after I visit random store in a day. It uses my location history. Rewards are about 10-50JPY (about 9-45c) each.
pindab0ter 5y ago
What’s your setup for that? How do you sync (incoming) photos to an arbitrary place outside of the Photos library?
- lordnacho 5y ago
  I'm not the GP but what I do is all my camera devices will sync to a cloud drive, and my NAS then syncs the cloud drive. Google Photos seems to be able to see them. That way I always have two copies of the image, a cloud version and a local. The main failure mode I'm concerned about is if Google decides I'm no longer worthy of an account. In that case I'll still have my pics and I'll put in the effort to set up some other service.
  - peterbraden 5y ago
    How do you do this with iPhoto? With an iPhone it doesn't seem that there is a way to sync with a folder anymore.
    - lordnacho 5y ago
      I'm unsure how to do it with iPhoto. My guess is it syncs up to Apple cloud, from which the NAS should be able to sync? At least once it's off the phone you don't have the sandbox, which is a bit stronger on Apple devices, IIRC. My cameras are all Androids, so I use FolderSync to put things in the cloud. It being Android there's still a filesystem that it can scan. I use an app on my QNAP to bring them back home.
- plank_time 5y ago
  Synology has an iPhone app called DS Photo you can use to download pics directly to your NAS.
- kyrra 5y ago
  Different tool, but this forum post lists some options: https://forum.photostructure.com/t/automatic-phone-uploads/20/3 https://forum.photostructure.com/t/automatic-phone-uploads/2... Some of the tools recommended are: https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/ https://www.resilio.com/ https://www.resilio.com/ https://www.photosync-app.com/home.html https://www.photosync-app.com/home.html
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

chomp 5y ago

It is not, however for some of us, there was an implicit “I let you datamine my images, you host them” relationship. Having to pay google tips the scales, so why not spend your $2 on a more privacy oriented service?

stevage 5y ago
Because most competitors are much more than $2/mo.
weird-eye-issue 5y ago
I love being able to search random things like "Honda" or "waffles" to find pictures from years ago in a few seconds. I use it often now that I can do it
smolyeet 5y ago
Because the people willing to pay Google for their service don't mind the use of their pictures to better their services elsewhere. Google didn't get to be where it was without us , and the fight for privacy isn't worth it for some (most) people. Alternatives usually involve self hosting, trusting a privacy focused service , or not doing it at all. It's tiring. I respect the effort , but In a lot of ways it feels like going backwards.
- Superblazer 5y ago
  The fight for privacy is absolutely worth it. Those people have no idea about what they are getting into, they don't know anything. That is not something to base upon.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - kevml 5y ago
    To assume that they don’t know “what they are getting into” is a bit patriarchal.
    - Superblazer 5y ago
      You think a random person who would never look or care about tech would understand the privacy issues? Absolutely not. All they'd know is what the companies say and advertise.
      - kayoone 5y ago
        I don't agree, especially due to massive media coverage around these issues even my mom who knows nothing about tech is very hesitant to sign up with new services and existing ones changing policies and what not. Not everyone understands the privacy issues deeply, but they are at least aware and in many cases more careful than say 5 years ago.
- taauji 5y ago
  That is exactly how google wanted it to be. Thy lied made everyone attached to the technology and now milking off it. Moreover I would not like google to invade my privacy if I am paying for it. I am paying and also my privacy is being breached. that doesn't seem fair
Jabbles 5y ago
What kind of datamining? I suppose we have no way of actually knowing if it's true, but Google does say they don't use Photos data for ads: As always, we don’t sell your information to anyone, and we don’t use information in apps where you primarily store personal content—such as Gmail, Drive, Calendar and Photos—for advertising purposes, period. https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/keeping-private-information-private/ https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/keeping-priva...
- dolmen 5y ago
  > As always, we don’t sell your information to anyone, and we don’t use information in apps where you primarily store personal content—such as Gmail, Drive, Calendar and Photos—for advertising purposes, period. As always with privacy policies, the information is in what is NOT said. 1. They don't sell to anyone. But what giving away for free? 2. They don't use personal content for advertising purposes. But what about other purposes than advertising? For example applying face or location recognition in photos to establish a profile that is used in a fraud detection service in Google Pay?
  - Jabbles 5y ago
    1 seems unlikely to me - why would Google do that? It would always be in exchange for something, which is pretty much selling. 2 seems more plausible.
    - croon 5y ago
      1) I trust them when they say they don't sell it, technically. However they probably do sell information/meta data they themselves have mined from my data, which they probably claim is harmless and de-personalized.
    - beagle3 5y ago
      FB effectively gave data away to app developers (e.g. Cambridge analytica). They got something in return - as they do with all their partners - but this is not generally considered a sale, and often not even a trade.
patrickaljord 5y ago
At $2 per month they are probably still subsidizing you with datamining.

fomine3 5y ago

I'm fine my photos are managed by Google, so I signed up 100GB plan of Google One. Google Opinion Rewards provides me enough money to fulfill the annual fee.

spamalot159 5y ago
How are you getting so many surveys? I can't seem to get more than one every few months!
- fomine3 5y ago
  I'm in Japan. I sometimes (about 30%) receive survey about payment method after I visit random store in a day. It uses my location history. Rewards are about 10-50JPY (about 9-45c) each.

pindab0ter 5y ago

What’s your setup for that? How do you sync (incoming) photos to an arbitrary place outside of the Photos library?

lordnacho 5y ago
I'm not the GP but what I do is all my camera devices will sync to a cloud drive, and my NAS then syncs the cloud drive. Google Photos seems to be able to see them. That way I always have two copies of the image, a cloud version and a local. The main failure mode I'm concerned about is if Google decides I'm no longer worthy of an account. In that case I'll still have my pics and I'll put in the effort to set up some other service.
- peterbraden 5y ago
  How do you do this with iPhoto? With an iPhone it doesn't seem that there is a way to sync with a folder anymore.
  - lordnacho 5y ago
    I'm unsure how to do it with iPhoto. My guess is it syncs up to Apple cloud, from which the NAS should be able to sync? At least once it's off the phone you don't have the sandbox, which is a bit stronger on Apple devices, IIRC. My cameras are all Androids, so I use FolderSync to put things in the cloud. It being Android there's still a filesystem that it can scan. I use an app on my QNAP to bring them back home.
plank_time 5y ago
Synology has an iPhone app called DS Photo you can use to download pics directly to your NAS.
kyrra 5y ago
Different tool, but this forum post lists some options: https://forum.photostructure.com/t/automatic-phone-uploads/20/3 https://forum.photostructure.com/t/automatic-phone-uploads/2... Some of the tools recommended are: https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/ https://www.resilio.com/ https://www.resilio.com/ https://www.photosync-app.com/home.html https://www.photosync-app.com/home.html

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]