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Want your images back? That'll be $5

lutr.dev

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Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#171

Post by xp84 »

lutr wrote: post #30
jadar wrote: post #19

Wow, shocker, a company will not indefinitely store your data for free.

If it was just that, I'd be okay-ish with it (even though it started out as a service). But pushing a monthly subscription for a 1-time action? Man.....

If it requires nothing more than a click to cancel, it seems like you'd be happier in life if you viewed such a thing as merely a two-step process (signup, get what you need, cancel immediately) rather than a serious commitment to spend $5 a month for the rest of your life. Unfortunately, everyone in business is now required to do this 'wishful thinking' that people will commit to everything. I laugh sometimes at items that Amazon hilariously suggests that I "Subscribe & Save" to!

When signup is one click, and cancellation requires a phone call... then I'm right there with you with the pitchforks!

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#172

Post by Henchman21 »

827a wrote: post #166

I don't necessarily mean this to be dismissive, but it'll come off like that and it is what it is: Don't go through life getting this mad at something so inconsequential (five dollars). The typical response is "its the principal", but they're not beholden to your principals, and getting worked up because someone else compromised your principals is not healthy. Its just other people doing things. Neither money nor pri…

[flagged]

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#174

Post by ur-whale »

xp84 wrote: post #168
ur-whale wrote: post #58

> Want your images back? Sure... That'll be $5! That kind of long con is (and has always been) part of the basic business model of most of the "free" service providers on the internet. First one is free, played on a decade time scale, works fine in a world where capital is quasi-free. The hyperscalers play it a little more subtly, but the principle is the same.

I really doubt anyone's getting rich off this. Genuinely doubt it. How many people remember their photobucket accounts, let alone bother to hunt them down, let alone want to bother getting a credit card out and remembering to cancel (or more hilariously, who's gonna pay $60 a year to keep that sub). I think whoever is running that site is probably barely breaking even at best, considering that they have to keep payin…

I'd ask a different question: how many people on HN have hit their free quota limit in e.g. Google Photos and are now forking off 5 bucks a month because that's the easy way out ?

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#175

Post by tuesdaynight »

827a wrote: post #166

I don't necessarily mean this to be dismissive, but it'll come off like that and it is what it is: Don't go through life getting this mad at something so inconsequential (five dollars). The typical response is "its the principal", but they're not beholden to your principals, and getting worked up because someone else compromised your principals is not healthy. Its just other people doing things. Neither money nor pri…

I get your point, but wouldn't that be exactly what bad actors want you to do? Normalcy bias is a great help to them

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#176

Post by xp84 »

ur-whale wrote: post #174
xp84 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really doubt anyone's getting rich off this. Genuinely doubt it. How many people remember their photobucket accounts, let alone bother to hunt them down, let alone want to bother getting a credit card out and remembering to cancel (or more hilariously, who's gonna pay $60 a year to keep that sub). I think whoever is running that site is probably barely breaking even at best, considering that they have to keep payin…

I'd ask a different question: how many people on HN have hit their free quota limit in e.g. Google Photos and are now forking off 5 bucks a month because that's the easy way out ?

raises hand although it's for a family member.

But that's a very different product. I was only saying I don't think the PB thing is getting anyone rich, rather it's probably bringing in just enough profit to keep whoever owns it from shutting it down and deleting the (S3) "bucket." As such, it's arguably a nice favor done to the few people who uploaded stuff to this site and are ever coming back for it. The alternative is for the stuff to have been long since deleted.

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#177

Post by RajT88 »

root-parent wrote: post #45
okramcivokram wrote: post #18

I have received the email that my photobucket account is going to be deleted, so I've logged in after who knows how many years and got offered the same thing, to subscribe. Instead I've went to close the account and in the process (or somewhere else, don't remember exactly) there was an option to first download all the data which I've used and got the images back (there were just a few as I haven't used the service r…

I predict that in the future, when you cancel an LLM subscription, they will threaten that unless you pay, to fully delete your anonymized chats, they will be public as paid training data. You know ...that is how we managed to offer you such a cheap subscription...

I don't think flat out blackmail will come from LLM companies. It will come from data brokerage companies headquartered overseas.

I'm kind of surprised it hasn't happened already, but I guess there hasn't been enough unscrupulous LLM companies selling those "anonymous" chat logs yet.

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#178

Post by pastor_williams »

dylan604 wrote: post #161
Aurornis wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there was some easy way to bet against this happening. I would put a lot of money on the side of this never happening for a multitude of reasons, but I bet I could collect a lot of money from cynics and doomers who think this stuff will happen.

As a devil's advocate, why do you trust the AI companies to behave as you suggest and not the other way? You say you have multitude of reasons, but list none. We have already seen by example that the AI companies do not care about laws and will circumvent societal norms as long as they get a leg up, so it's not a stretch to think they'd do things like this too.

It isn't just out of the kindness of their hearts that they don't do this. There are laws and regulations. There is also legal risk and reputation. I have to go through a legal and privacy process at my big corp job whenever I want to record a new timestamp and I need to ensure that the data is used appropriately and that it is wiped later. I've only seen these compliance requirements become more onerous over the past ten years and I expect that to continue.

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#179

Post by doublepg23 »

realityfactchex wrote: post #169

What's the best alternative? Flickr? I don't want to self-host my photos, too much management. I don't want to use Apple or Google or MS Clouds for various reasons. I do want to support a pure-play, independent-ish, profitable, consumer friendly platform. To upload hires shots and have them easy to tag/share/access among those to whom they may be of interest. I expect to pay, but not through the nose. Reliability mat…

> I don't want to self-host my photos, too much management.

I dunno https://immich.app is pretty painless IME.

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#180

Post by tuesdaynight »

jmathai wrote: post #53

Given this is a largely technical crowd, I feel it my duty to share just how good (and free/open) Immich is. If you’re like me and don’t want to be an “admin for life” then it’s still for you. What has worked for me for over a decade is to keep the source of my photos in a boring old folder (backed up to my synology and Dropbox). And then layer photo viewing and sharing apps on top. The day I’m sick of Immich and the…

Just a heads up, but Immich mobile app deleted my local copies when I activated the backup, for some unknown reason. I've checked my settings and there is an option to free up space on backup, but I didn't activate it. It's not something catastrophic, but some messaging apps will not see your pictures and will consider them corrupted
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