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To stay on topic, I'm a parent and have autoupload to google photos. How can I prevent the photo from bring uploaded? I could disable autoupload, but as soon a

To stay on topic, I'm a parent and have autoupload to google photos. How can I prevent the photo from bring uploaded? I could disable autoupload, but as soon as I resume it, the photo will be uploaded, unless I remove it from the phone. Any suggestions?

20after4 4y ago
don't use google photos at all. And probably don't have pictures that are even remotely questionable on your phone, even if it's for legitimate reasons.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 4y ago
  That overlooks the reality of life. To many people, smartphones are the only camera they have.
  - Freak_NL 4y ago
    That's fine, and it sucks that often there is not really a choice in which camera software to use either. It doesn't help that by choosing Android or IOS you almost inevitably get hooked into the clouds of Google and Apple. I deliberately bought a Pixel 6 in order to install GrapheneOS (a degoogled Android) and leave out all links to Google except for the Play store for a handful of apps pushed by governments and banks. The built-in camera app works fine, and OpenCamera is a great alternative too now that it supports all cameras of the Pixel 6.
    - caeril 4y ago
      This is the correct answer. Use GrapheneOS and synchronize your photos to your NAS. Nobody needs to use Google or Apple "cloud" for photos.
sudhirj 4y ago
Turn off Google's auto upload. The entire photos thing has long been a way to get images to train ML, and since they actively use these images you're not in a position of power here. i.e. you're doing Google a favour by using the auto-upload. Either find a service that you're paying for, or if you want to trust a big corp maybe go with Apple. Not perfect, but best of the lot from what I can see. All of the logic is on-device, so they're less inclined to peek at your photos. There was a big hubbub a while ago when they tried to do unsafe photo detection on-device, but they backtracked.
- izacus 4y ago
  Apple does same exact scanning of iCloud photos and ban iCloud accounts with the same glee as well, so I'm not sure why do you think recommending another megacorp will help the OP (outside of buying into Apples marketing schtick).
- dvzk 4y ago
  I disabled iCloud Photos sync some time ago, and even though there are some pain points, it's surprisingly easy to work without it. Just do a manual direct sync every so often. Run borg or bupstash to encrypt and backup the copied photos to any location.
iforgotpassword 4y ago
Do not resume it.
phantomathkg 4y ago
I think until Google Photos implement selective upload, we as a user have no options.
helixfelix 4y ago
On Android, I use Open Camera app with a custom save location that by default doesn't backup photos. It prevents going into DCIM / camera roll. Go into more camera controls , enable Storage Access Framework, select custom directory.
modeless 4y ago
Google Photos has a feature for exactly this on Android. It's called "Locked Folder". It is not synced, and accessing it requires your screen lock code or biometric authentication. You can choose to save photos directly into the locked folder as you take them, in which case they are never uploaded.
melff 4y ago
If you're concerned about your privacy I'd advise against just trying to disable uploading but still giving your photos to apps you don't trust, primarily because of possible future implementation of client-side scanning(they are making steps to mandate that for messengers in the EU atm, for example). AFAIK android phones upload all sorts of data to google by default, my recommendation is to install a custom ROM (like lineageOS), that will rid you of a lot of these privacy violators without dealing with them individually. If you don't want to do that, avoid google services/apps entirely for anything that you don't trust them with. I'm not familiar with google photos(never used it for (now) obvious reasons), and I don't know what features you need, so I can't really give recommendations on that specifically.

20after4 4y ago

don't use google photos at all. And probably don't have pictures that are even remotely questionable on your phone, even if it's for legitimate reasons.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 4y ago
That overlooks the reality of life. To many people, smartphones are the only camera they have.
- Freak_NL 4y ago
  That's fine, and it sucks that often there is not really a choice in which camera software to use either. It doesn't help that by choosing Android or IOS you almost inevitably get hooked into the clouds of Google and Apple. I deliberately bought a Pixel 6 in order to install GrapheneOS (a degoogled Android) and leave out all links to Google except for the Play store for a handful of apps pushed by governments and banks. The built-in camera app works fine, and OpenCamera is a great alternative too now that it supports all cameras of the Pixel 6.
  - caeril 4y ago
    This is the correct answer. Use GrapheneOS and synchronize your photos to your NAS. Nobody needs to use Google or Apple "cloud" for photos.

sudhirj 4y ago

Turn off Google's auto upload. The entire photos thing has long been a way to get images to train ML, and since they actively use these images you're not in a position of power here. i.e. you're doing Google a favour by using the auto-upload. Either find a service that you're paying for, or if you want to trust a big corp maybe go with Apple. Not perfect, but best of the lot from what I can see. All of the logic is on-device, so they're less inclined to peek at your photos. There was a big hubbub a while ago when they tried to do unsafe photo detection on-device, but they backtracked.

izacus 4y ago
Apple does same exact scanning of iCloud photos and ban iCloud accounts with the same glee as well, so I'm not sure why do you think recommending another megacorp will help the OP (outside of buying into Apples marketing schtick).
dvzk 4y ago
I disabled iCloud Photos sync some time ago, and even though there are some pain points, it's surprisingly easy to work without it. Just do a manual direct sync every so often. Run borg or bupstash to encrypt and backup the copied photos to any location.

iforgotpassword 4y ago

Do not resume it.

phantomathkg 4y ago

I think until Google Photos implement selective upload, we as a user have no options.

helixfelix 4y ago

On Android, I use Open Camera app with a custom save location that by default doesn't backup photos. It prevents going into DCIM / camera roll. Go into more camera controls , enable Storage Access Framework, select custom directory.

modeless 4y ago

Google Photos has a feature for exactly this on Android. It's called "Locked Folder". It is not synced, and accessing it requires your screen lock code or biometric authentication. You can choose to save photos directly into the locked folder as you take them, in which case they are never uploaded.

melff 4y ago

If you're concerned about your privacy I'd advise against just trying to disable uploading but still giving your photos to apps you don't trust, primarily because of possible future implementation of client-side scanning(they are making steps to mandate that for messengers in the EU atm, for example). AFAIK android phones upload all sorts of data to google by default, my recommendation is to install a custom ROM (like lineageOS), that will rid you of a lot of these privacy violators without dealing with them individually. If you don't want to do that, avoid google services/apps entirely for anything that you don't trust them with. I'm not familiar with google photos(never used it for (now) obvious reasons), and I don't know what features you need, so I can't really give recommendations on that specifically.