So Google is now preventing people from removing location data from photos taken with Pixel phones.
So Google is now preventing people from removing location data from photos taken with Pixel phones.
So Google is now preventing people from removing location data from photos taken with Pixel phones.
Remember when Google's corporate motto was "don't be evil?"
Obviously, accurate location data on photos is more useful to a data mining operation like Google.
From Google: "Important: You can only update or remove estimated locations. If the location of a photo or video was automatically added by your camera, you can't edit or remove the location."
It's enshitification in action.
Source: https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6153599?hl=en&sjid=8103501961576262529-AP
#technology #tech @technology #business #enshitification #Android #Google @pluralistic #infosec
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic I ran into this a while back.
- It's not new
- It's not specific to Pixel photos.
The app and cloud service just don't have support for modifying the EXIF tags, so if *any* camera has added GPS data, you can't use Google Photos to change or remove it.
The estimated location is stored in the Google Photos database and can be modified within the app.
You *can* turn GPS off in the camera app.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic A few months ago I dug into ways to work around this with photos that had already been taken with the GPS coordinates. Annoyingly, you mostly have to save the photo, remove the tag, and re-upload it.
There is Scrambled Exif which i find quiet convenient for removing exif data quickly before sharing pictures.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic (I take a lot of photos for iNaturalist and reference photos for OpenStreetMap editing, so I'm constantly turning GPS on for those, and then back off for personal photos, and sometimes I forget.)
@ajsadauskas@aus.social @technology@lemmy.ml Sorry, but this is kind of misinformation, it's not "photos taken with Pixel phones", but the Google Photos app in general. The camera app still has a toggle for it. Not even going to mention how almost all modern apps nowadays automatically remove location data from images while uploading. You are still free to delete it from photos using other (and better) gallery apps too.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic stop using google software.
Use google hardware, but no google software 🛑
@ajsadauskas
In the long run, only running or renting your own, private #cloud solves this (and a few other problems). Happily using #Nextcloud and #OpenSource photo editors - will never go back to Google.I've been an avid #nextcloud user since it was owncloud, and won't go back to using corporate cloud services ever again.
@ajsadauskas
How has this anything to do with Pixel phones? As I understand it, this is about the Google Photo service. You can't edit exif data in it, and location data is part is exif. You can, however, turn off location data in your phone, or edit exif data in an external app. Or am I mistaken?
@technology @pluralistic @samuelYes, this whole post is full of miscommunication.
@kallekn @technology @pluralistic @samuel Google Photos is the default gallery app on Google Phones.
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If a photo is not taken with your phone, Google Photos allows you to manually enter a location.
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Google Photos also allows you to remove this location.
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If a photo is taken with your phone, the icon to edit or remove the location is greyed out.
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Tapping the information will produce an error message.
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The ability to edit the location data of photos you'd taken used to be there, but has been removed. I'm not the only person to notice this, there's a support thread about it on Google's own website: https://support.google.com/photos/thread/110092925/regression-location-no-longer-editable-if-the-camera-added-it?hl=en
Google Photos is the default gallery app on Google Phones.
Can you turn off location in the camera app? Because that's what most people do. Who has location on their pictures turned on and then removes the location individually from photos in the gallery app??
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@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic Crazy. first thing you turn off is the option location data get added to a photo. Or does that still work ?
@ajsadauskas
Thanks for this! I use simple camera from F-droid and checked the settings in panic. Thankfully it does not save exif data by default!I'm tired of this Google/Apple duopoly in the mobile computing space. We need a noncommercial option. I've been daily driving a Linux phone for almost 2 years now. Originally a PinePhone, then a PinePhone Pro, then a OnePlus 6T, now back to the PinePhone Pro. The ecosystem is still in its early days and a lot of things don't work, but it's so nice to have a phone that I control rather than a phone that controls me. Google used to be awesome, Android used to be awesome, but they've been getting progressively worse for a decade or more.
The ecosystem is such a problem with Linux phones. Google has 3.5 million apps on the Google Play Store, while Apple has a still impressive 1.5 million apps. You can replace some of the functionality with web applications, but you miss out on important features like push notifications. I can think of a couple of dozen Android apps where I would miss a significant amount of functionality, including making VPN access to my workplace significantly more difficult. Same with a bike GPS device and Fitbit watch. Both require an Android or iPhone to provide full functionality. Ideals are nice. Delivering functionality is nicer.
Well, PWAs have access to a lot of hardware APIs (if allowed) and there's WebPush.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic Not to defend Google or anything, but its worth noting that you can still disable location data in the camera app itself.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic Google claims a religious exemption that trumps your privacy concerns: "The data from your camera is sacred to us and our business model, and we, via our operating systems and applications, strictly forbid you from profaning that data."
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic I'd recommend @GrapheneOS for Pixel owners
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic doesn't that just mean that the exit data editing is not possible using Photos app. Instead of "preventing" geo location removal. I never thought exit data editing was part of Photos app. Or any gallery app in that case
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic please read "exif" instead of "exit".
Courtesy my autocorrect
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic @val Also I would argue that “estimated location” is the more privacy invasive feature here as this means that Google allows itself to basically reconstruct a private information (location) I might have purposefully removed (or disabled in the camera) to begin with 😕
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic this isn't necessarily addressing the issue/concern but I urge everyone to use an exif stripper before sharing a photo. Scrambled eggsif is doing that in a convenient way, share to the app and it will allow you to share to the destination of your choice (piping). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jarsilio.android.scrambledeggsif
yess! and it's FOSS and also available through F-Droid 🤩
@pluralistic @ajsadauskas @technology I wonder how that interacts with GDPR. I'm don't think this is PII, but there must be something in scope.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic @val Don’t want to defend Google here but this looks more like “we don’t change the image’s EXIF data stored *inside* the binary image file. Estimated location can be edited because it is stored outside that file”
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic @val or more generally: Google could offer a way to trim the actual EXIF data but that would be an entire different process than just touching an entry in a database.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic I have the current Pixel. Updated Android this morning. The camera app still has a toggle for this.
Sounds like this is more about not being able to remove the metadata in the file in Google Photos, only the metadata stored by the app (outside the file) itself. I'm not sure Google Photos had a way to strip the metadata from the file before.
@alan @technology @pluralistic Go into Google Photos.
Open a recent photo you've taken with your camera.
Scroll down to the toggle to edit the location data, tap it, and see what happens.
@ajsadauskas @alan @technology @pluralistic Location is always off on my phone. Location data on photos only has option to add a location.
Yes, I have tape over my PC and tablet cameras, and access to mics is off, too. 🤷♀️@ajsadauskas @alan @technology @pluralistic You're talking about Photos, not the camera app. You can disable location data collection in the camera app: https://support.google.com/photos/answer/9921876?hl=en#zippy=%2Cgoogle-devices
Cameras write location data to the image itself as metadata. If they're using a content addressable storage system, they can't update this data without changing the underlying image itself. Seems like edits in Photos are stored separate from the image itself. Editing image metadata may require architectural changes.
Is this a change? My initial reading is that since this help page is only about some google-photos-specific metadata, it can't mess with the exif data, if any, inside the image. Did Google photos used to provide a way to remove exif data? It would seem like a useful function, but was it ever there?
(Note that I work for Google, but not anywhere near Photos or Android, and speak only for myself etc etc.)
OK first thanks for sharing this as a heads up for those out of the loop.
However, here's my hot takes:
- This sounds like it's behaviour of the stock ROM and/or the stock photo management app. So the clear solutions are to flash LineageOS, or use another gallery app from... F-Droid or anything else (Simple Gallery hello?)
- Turn off your Location permissions when not in use. "It's annoying to do that"? Pick your poison then.
- Users fault for buying a Pixel... which is LITERALLY a Google product...
"It’s enshitification in action." It's literally Google, it's been shittified a loooong time.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic install grapheneOS. 😁
Thank god I no longer use their service after their unlimited option was cut. I was only using it as a backup solution, as I still prefer keeping stuff on my computer, rather than uploading to the cloud. I use #Shotwell to manage my photos and before that, I was using Windows Live Gallery while I was still on Windows (If anyone remembers). It was a really powerful and underrated piece of software, albeit proprietary, that was doing pretty much the same things as Google Photos is doing now - but locally, on the computer that you own (yea, I do sound like I am older than I actually am, maybe I am, in some regards, haha - but reading all these news about how Google is manipulating user data is just infuriating).
You should look into nextcloud. It's like google photos, but self hosted. It's pretty good.
@aeternum @petrescatraian there's also @ente 😬 (I'm not affiliated with them in any way)
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic
In fairness I don't post any photos anywhere that still have EXIF location information unless it's obvious where the photo is taken and it's not a people picture.@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic @reselsnark if you want to remove location data from photos, open them in the standard paint on a windows computer and save. It kills a lot of metadata
For anyone interested in the image text @OCRBot@lemmygrad.ml
URL image text
Edit or remove an estimated location from a photo Important: You can only update or remove estimated locations. If the location of a photo or video was automatically added by your camera, you can't edit or remove the location.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open Google Photos 3&.
- Open the photo or video.
- Tap More : > Edit /. • Add or select a location from your recent locations. • To remove the estimated location, tap Remove location.
This action was performed by a bot.
@ajsadauskas
can you use a different photo app?
@technology @pluralistic@ajsadauskas
...and would it make any difference?
@technology @pluralistic
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic when using stock pixel android, Google does not need the location from Fotos to have your location data.
On the other side, Google is actually building pretty cool things still under NDA to prevent location data to leak to other apps
.
If you don't trust Google, don't use Android with Google services. It always has been that simple.@mxk @ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic Stop apologizing for the shitty behavior of fucking billionaires. They are not your friend. They do not care about you. They don't know you exist.
"Just don't use it!" is the cry of ever braindead fanboy out there.
Do better.
@tenet @mxk @ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic
Sounds almost like:
@tenet @ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic well, there are trust models.
Its a simple question if your trust model includes google or if it does not.
Talking about "friends" is silly here, it's not about that.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic
Better make sure you turn off location data and location estimates in your settings before it's too late.
Google Photos > Settings > Location > Location Sources
@pluralistic @ajsadauskas that's why I would never use a Google Phone.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic @amyegan Insanity.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic My previous phone was a Pixel 2. My new phone is an iPhone as I've had enough of Google. Not that Apple is perfect. It's all levels of evil really.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic I have no personal knowledge of the matter, but it reminds me of the quote - "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence"
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic
Probably also useful for AI data sets.
And with that I continue to inch closer and closer to giving up and getting a linux phone...
@RassilonianLegate @technology @pluralistic I have to say, Plasma Mobile is certainly looking increasingly tempting...
I'm personally a fan of the Phosh UI but Linux phone in general is the way to go. No capitalistic bullshit decisions guiding your mobile experience.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic
My plan currently is to switch to a Linux phone after my (unrootable) Samsung starts dying, but if Samsung follows suit here (as they are known to do with plenty of other things) I might just have to start looking for something a bit sooner than I expected
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic I recommend ObscuraCam. It can remove metadata from existing photos, detect and obscure faces, and take photos without metadata.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.witness.sscphase1
@miah @ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic it looks like this app is old? I'm trying out "Secure Camera" from the @GrapheneOS folks. Works great so far.
@dizzyspiral @ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic @GrapheneOS oh no it's old!
@technology @ajsadauskas @pluralistic image description:
Google instructions on how to edit or remove an estimated location from a photo reading
“Important: You can only update or remove estimated locations. If the location of a photo or video was automatically added by your camera, you can't edit or remove the location.”I usually edit my photos in gimp.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic do we have start lawyering for exif data to be owned by the author???
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic That is really evil. I have a Pixel 4a, but I'm running GrapheneOS for security.
@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic this is going to backfire on them.