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Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

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Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#61

Post by pmontra »

klausa wrote: post #18
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…

> 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.

I use to send pictures over the camera wifi from my Sony W500 to my phone. The main purpose is backup (think I'm in the middle of nowhere or with little internet for days) and then to send them to friends with WhatsApp. If I'm at home I pull the SD card and read it from my laptop. It's quicker.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#63

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

amazingamazing wrote: post #47
maccard wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If google really cared about privacy, they wouldn't have moved maps away from a subdomain. now if I want maps to have my location (logical), I need to grant google _search_ my location too.

Google has your location either way. What difference does it make?

You can lock down their usage. Limit it to three months storage and minimize sharing. They still report an old address for home and work for me since I dialed up the restrictions years ago. They have the data but it is less exposed.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#64

Post by jeroenhd »

andybak wrote: post #33
sixhobbits wrote: post #8

It's a sad story and a fun-looking project but I think Google 100% did the right thing here. Most people have no idea how much information is included in photo metadata, and stripping it as much as possible lines up to how people expect the world to work.

But surely there's a way to do this without totally killing valuable functionality? It's like the Android Sideloading debate all over again. Something that is very useful to 1% of users is stripped away. And we end up with dumb appliances (and ironically - most likely still no privacy )

You can probably get around this problem by compressing the file and uploading it in a .zip. Google Files allows for making zip files at least, so I don't think it's a rare feature.

I think the linked spec suggestion makes the most sense: make the feature opt-in in the file picker, probably require the user to grant location permissions when uploading files with EXIF location information.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#65

Post by petu »

PokemonNoGo wrote: post #38
eru wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Wait... You post selfies on Google Maps? The thought never crossed my mind. What would the purpose be? Sorry I'm probably thick...

Google Maps app sees that you took photo near POI and later in the day asks you in notification if you want to share it on maps.

You review the photo and go "lol, sure".

At least for me that doesn't even feel like posting due to how frictionless it is and that it's about natural discoverability (someone has to click that POI and scroll through photos to find it).

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#66

Post by jeroenhd »

sixhobbits wrote: post #44
andybak wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But surely there's a way to do this without totally killing valuable functionality? It's like the Android Sideloading debate all over again. Something that is very useful to 1% of users is stripped away. And we end up with dumb appliances (and ironically - most likely still no privacy )

yeah it does sound kind of dodge that there's no option even for advanced users to bypass this, I would guess mainly a moat to protect Google Photos. I wonder if online photo competitors are finding a workaround or not as searching your photos by location seems like a big feature there

I don't know when Google's EXIF protections are supposed to kick in, but so far my photos auto-synced to Nextcloud still contain location information as expected.

I don't think this has anything to do with Google Photos. People fall victim to doxxing or stalking or even location history tracking by third party apps all the time because they don't realize their pictures contain location information. It's extra confusion to laypeople now that many apps (such as Discord) will strip EXIF data but others (websites, some chat apps) don't.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#67

Post by jeroenhd »

adzm wrote: post #29

This is the right move. https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/11724#issuecomment-419... and adding a feature to browsers to explicitly use the info is the best solution really. The problem is that there was a change without a backup solution without making a native app, but preventing people from accidentally uploading their location in an image is the right move. It really needs to be more well known and handled aut…

While I think it's the right move to disable location tags by default, I also think Google should've waited until a solution to the missing functionality had at least hit the WHATWG spec.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#68

Post by nozzlegear »

bilsbie wrote: post #53

Does iPhone do this? Kind of scary to be accidentally sending your home address anywhere you upload a photo.

You can choose whether you want to share the location or not when selecting photos in iOS. You'll see at the bottom a label that says "Location is included", and you can click the three dots to remove location:

https://imgur.com/a/lm0stDE

Not sure if there's a way to do that by default, I've never checked.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#69

Post by sathackr »

edgineer wrote: post #55
maccard wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If google really cared about privacy, they wouldn't have moved maps away from a subdomain. now if I want maps to have my location (logical), I need to grant google _search_ my location too.

It's not all-or-nothing; sometimes some people at Google push for some things to improve privacy. Rarely happens when revenue is at stake. Android used to ask you "do you want to alllow internet access?" as an app permission. Google removed that, as it would stop ads from showing up. Devastating change for privacy and security, great for revenue.

GrapheneOS still does this -- allows controlling internet access on a per-app basis.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#70

Post by edent »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #25

>So, can users transfer their photos via Bluetooth or QuickShare? .. Literally the only way to get a photo with geolocation intact is to plug in a USB cable Bluetooth is not QuickShare, stop conflating them. Bluetooth works. I just tried it. It just sends the entire file to the destination, filename intact with all EXIF, no gimmicks, tricks, or extra toggles. As it has always done for 20+ years.

OP here. I'm not conflating them. That's why I used the word "or".

I don't know how modern your Android phone is, but on all of mine sharing via Bluetooth strips away some of the EXIF.

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