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Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

shkspr.mobi

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Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#11

Post by embedding-shape »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #6
iamcalledrob wrote: post #3

Similarly, the native Android photo picker strips the original filename. This causes daily customer support issues, where people keep asking the app developer why they're renaming their files. https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/268079113 Status: Won't Fix (Intended Behavior).

This a very weird set of choices by Google. How many users are uploading photos from their camera to their phone so they can then upload them from the phone to the web? I bet almost 100% of photo uploads using the default Android photo picker, or the default Android web browser, are of photos that were taken with the default Android camera app. If Google feels that the location tags and filenames are unacceptably inv…

> If Google feels that the location tags and filenames are unacceptably invasive, it can stop writing them that way.

Something can be "not invasive" when only done locally, but turn out to be a bad idea when you share publicly. Not hard to imagine a lot of users want to organize their libraries by location in a easy way, but still not share the location of every photo they share online.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#13

Post by darkhorn »

egeozcan wrote: post #2

This must be a Chrome thing, not an Android thing, no? I didn't test this but I'd be surprised if Firefox behaved the same.

Just tested with Firefox 149 on Android 13. There are no coordinates when I upload an image to EXIF viewer web sites.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#14

Post by 47282847 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #6
iamcalledrob wrote: post #3

Similarly, the native Android photo picker strips the original filename. This causes daily customer support issues, where people keep asking the app developer why they're renaming their files. https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/268079113 Status: Won't Fix (Intended Behavior).

This a very weird set of choices by Google. How many users are uploading photos from their camera to their phone so they can then upload them from the phone to the web? I bet almost 100% of photo uploads using the default Android photo picker, or the default Android web browser, are of photos that were taken with the default Android camera app. If Google feels that the location tags and filenames are unacceptably inv…

My phone: my private space. Anything in the browser: not my private space.

I want exactly that: the OS to translate between that boundary with a sane default. It’s unavoidable to have cases where this is inconvenient or irritating.

I don’t even know on iPhone how files are named “internally” (nor do I care), since I do not access the native file system or even file format but in 99% of all use cases come in contact only with the exported JPEGs. I do want to see all my photos on a map based on the location they were taken, and I want a timestamp. Locally. Not when I share a photo with a third party.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#15

Post by eru »

embedding-shape wrote: post #9
ieie3366 wrote: post #4

Most likely: actually using the geolocation is an extremely niche usecase for images uploaded from mobile browsers. I’d wager 99.9% of the users didn’t realize that they are effectively sending their live GPS coords to a random website when taking a photo. But yes, a prop to the input tag ’includeLocation’ which would then give the user some popup confirmation prompt would have been nice

> I’d wager 99.9% of the users didn’t realize that they are effectively sending their live GPS coords to a random website when taking a photo. I'd wager 90% of the photos on Google Maps associated with various listings don't actually know their photos are in public. I keep coming across selfies and other photos that look very personal, but somehow someone uploaded to Google Maps, the photo is next to a store or somet…

Google prompts you in Google Maps if you want to upload your picture to Maps.

I sometimes do that for random pictures, even like selfies, which I don't mind popping up there.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#17

Post by II2II »

Yes, I get it. It is inconvenient for legitimate uses. The problem is that our devices leak too much confidential data. Privacy was mentioned outright in the article. Safety/security was alluded to with an example, which is something that goes far beyond a company's image or even liability.

Unfortunately, there is no good way to solve the problem while maintaining convenience. As the author noted, prompts while uploading don't really work. Application defaults don't really work for web browsers, since what is acceptable for one website isn't necessarily acceptable for another. Having the user enter the location through the website make the user aware of the information being disclosed, but it is inconvenient.

Does the situation suck? Yes. On the other hand, I think Google is doing the responsible thing here.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#18

Post by klausa »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #6
iamcalledrob wrote: post #3

Similarly, the native Android photo picker strips the original filename. This causes daily customer support issues, where people keep asking the app developer why they're renaming their files. https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/268079113 Status: Won't Fix (Intended Behavior).

This a very weird set of choices by Google. How many users are uploading photos from their camera to their phone so they can then upload them from the phone to the web? I bet almost 100% of photo uploads using the default Android photo picker, or the default Android web browser, are of photos that were taken with the default Android camera app. If Google feels that the location tags and filenames are unacceptably inv…

> How many users are uploading photos from their camera to their phone so they can then upload them from the phone to the web?

To _their phone_ specifically? Probably almost nobody. But to their Google/Apple Photos library?

A lot, if not most of people who use DSLRs and other point-and-shoot cameras. Most people want a single library of photos, not segregated based on which device they shot it on.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#19

Post by eru »

embedding-shape wrote: post #11
thaumasiotes wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This a very weird set of choices by Google. How many users are uploading photos from their camera to their phone so they can then upload them from the phone to the web? I bet almost 100% of photo uploads using the default Android photo picker, or the default Android web browser, are of photos that were taken with the default Android camera app. If Google feels that the location tags and filenames are unacceptably inv…

> If Google feels that the location tags and filenames are unacceptably invasive, it can stop writing them that way. Something can be "not invasive" when only done locally, but turn out to be a bad idea when you share publicly. Not hard to imagine a lot of users want to organize their libraries by location in a easy way, but still not share the location of every photo they share online.

Definitely. I want to be able to search my Google Photos for "Berlin" and get me all the pictures I took there.
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