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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

#81

Post by morissette »

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.

Seems like such a shitty thing to victimize the potential victim. But… if you didn’t know that images you took had metadata… maybe you shouldn’t be allowed to use a computer. I mean. I’m going on decades of knowing this. Feel like there is a mid 90s X-Files episode that even like breaks this down. If not NCIS or some shit.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#82

Post by srcoder »

Already use imagepipe [0] since forever, sometimes it takes soms extra time, still worth the effort. Most of the time I take a picture share with imagepipe, share with external and don't share anything else

I will never share my location via images with anybody then myself. I do use location for my local Photoprism on my own server

0 https://codeberg.org/Starfish/Imagepipe#how-to-get-the-app

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#83

Post by eru »

petu wrote: post #65
PokemonNoGo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

About the latter: that's why Google Maps is my favourite social medium. It's hyper-local.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#84

Post by morissette »

dns_snek wrote: post #52
butlike wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The path is different than the filename though. If I want to find duplicates, it will be impossible if the filename changes. In my use case /User/user/Images/20240110/happy_birthday.jpg and /User/user/Desktop/happy_birthday.jpg are the same image.

> it will be impossible if the filename changes. Not impossible, just different and arguably better - comparing hashes is a better tool for finding duplicates.

^ facts

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#85

Post by lukan »

amazingamazing wrote: post #73
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I honestly don’t understand the scenario you’re defending against. Google still knows where you actually live and work trivially. If you don’t trust Google you should just de-Google completely.

I also don't trust my government. So should I just degovernment completely? Sounds just as practical or realistic for most people.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#86

Post by pjmlp »

morissette wrote: post #81
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.

Seems like such a shitty thing to victimize the potential victim. But… if you didn’t know that images you took had metadata… maybe you shouldn’t be allowed to use a computer. I mean. I’m going on decades of knowing this. Feel like there is a mid 90s X-Files episode that even like breaks this down. If not NCIS or some shit.

100% of the people that don't know that HN exists, most likely don't know images have metadata.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#87

Post by sib »

lifis wrote: post #28
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).

Obviously an image picker shouldn't leak filenames... The filename is a property of the directory entry storing the file storing the image. The image picker only grants access to the image, not to directories, directory entries or files. If you want filenames, you need to request access to a directory, not to an image

"Obviously"

There are plenty of use cases where the filename is relevant (and many, many people intentionally use the image name for sorting / cataloging).

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#89

Post by NelsonMinar »

I wish they'd just switch to fuzzing the location instead of stripping it entirely. Instead of specifying 6 digits of lat/lon, publish 1 digit to identify what rough area you're in (to about 10km).

I've done a lot of neat projects with geolocation over the years. Including a personal travel diary, a bunch of visualizations of tweets and Flickr photos, etc etc. I am sad that's become nearly impossible but I do respect that most people don't understand the privacy risk.

Meanwhile on the advertising backend Google knows your exact location and is using it to help third parties target ads to you. And sleazy apps like Grindr sell location streams to anyone who asks. The bad guys get this data, just not the useful apps.

Re: Android now stops you sharing your location in photos

#90

Post by pjmlp »

flipped wrote: post #37

GrapheneOS already does this, since forever. Android can't stop copying GOS. Maybe they'll add a network toggle after a few years and call it a privacy win.

GrapheneOS only exists because Google hasn't yet completely closed shop on AOSP availability.

Who knows, it may eventually be only available on Motorola devices.

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