Ya. I'm sorry for you.
Problem is, even if you delete the Images, Google has already scraped them for info on you and used your Google account and phone number to tie it all together to further its data aggregation profile on you.
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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Privacy
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Sorry for your shitty situation.
Try this. No root needed. I'm pretty much google free on FP5 (and others).
https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater
Removes most google apps and services.
Also try not to ever sign into google on your phone directly. Use Aurora Store, DAVX, Thunderbird etc.
I disabled the gallery and downloaded a different one.
Yes, and they and apple keep saying it's all done locally. Because trust me bro!
I'm sorry. There's really no way to undo this. Grieving and and moving on is the only option, and I am not being sarcastic. If my privacy was violated like that by google, I would be very upset and would grieve. Even if you complain, they won't remove it from AI training or whatever they intend to do, even if they lie and say they will. Librem 5's have no google in them if you want to switch to something else. FuriLabs also make a Debian smartphone.
fairphones can also run custom roms. with calyxos the bootloader can even be relocked for security, it's done by the installer. that way google services are optional
Email their data protection officer and the government. They may get fined hundreds of millions of dollars for this
Lol. Yeah and trump will get prosecuted for raping minors.
We're talking about the EU, not some fascist country in America
Oh I'm sorry. What I meant to say was that Tony Blair will be prosecuted for war crimes
You must be new around here lol
Exactly. Luigi #2 is the only way to even temporarily stop this.
You must not read the news?
U is naive
Event like this is what got me radicalized
google photos goes omnom
I feel for you.
training ai on your photo's without even asking. wankers
I have just copied my elderly friends 2000 photos from google photos to my desktop, then deleted all of them from her phone. Had to do it with my browser, they only allow you to delete 30 photos at a time on the phone. tossers.
Installed droid-ify, installed lawnchair, fossify gallery, fossify messages, fossify contacts. perfect.
imported her photos back on to her phone:
Intentionally painful but its done.
bring on ADB, I have deleted everything with a G in it.
first one: I wrote a simple little bash script for these:
adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.chrome
okgoogle, xgoogle, Gmail, calender, Calendar Sync, videos, googlequicksearchbox, youtube, music, Google Contacts Sync, googleassistant, Google Digital Well Being App, Google Duo, Google Pay, google photos and Google Drive with adb so its doesnt happen again.
This poor women is 84, WTF does she know about modern tech, google are tossers
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I would get rid of fairphone rom and install another rom:
unlock your bootloader. easy guide from Fairphone.
then install lineage or E/os custom rom
It's kinda a pain to use 'cause so many apps rely on Google services, so those need to be replaced with alternatives, but e/OS is installable and is supported by Fairphone
https://community.e.foundation/t/install-e-os-v2-on-fairphone-5-my-little-guide/58260
Where's the article to this story?
There's no article - this is something that happened to me personally, today. I needed an outlet and wanted some advice what to do about this, and I'm really happy about the responses I've gotten.
Yes, but you're just screaming into an ephemeral void.
You could actually make google pay for this if you wrote an article about this on substack and then linked to it here.
Google has already paid over a billion dollars for GDPR violations. They do change their behavior as a result of such reporting and legal consequences.
Op should deff fight back but let's temper the expectations here... Realistically nothing will happen.
But yes it should be documented
Google specially has been fined over a billion dollars. GDPR law suits and financial consequences are very realistic
Sure child
In FY 23-24 google made over $340B I dont think they mind
Of course they mind. Because they changed their behavior. Else, the billion dollar fines would repeat over-and-over.
Yes, this happens. Even if you turn off all the syncing etc, they will shoot an update and all your settings will revert to default. This has happened with my father's phone a lot.
And even if you keep all these settings off, they are still scanning all photos to check for CSAM.
I highly recommend deGoogling your phone. If you cannot install a custom ROM, check out Universal Android Debloater. There are many sources for degoogling your life. Check out c/degoogle on Lemmy (I forgot the instance name, just search for it). ~~Or if you want we have small group on Signal for deGoogling related talks, DM me and I can share the link to join. (Signal does require a phone number to register, but since usernames are a thing your phone number will not be available publicly.)~~ That group link is disabled, but I can share other group links like Linux and FOSS, or other privacy related groups.
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Use /e/OS officially supported on fair phone 5
/e/OS is a good option to regain privacy from Google, but arguably does some things worse in terms of security than stock.
You can find a good comparison here.
For the Fairphone 5, I'd recommend CalyxOS as soon as they're back from their hiatus. In the meantime, might as well stick with stock.
Have some dic pics that were uploaded that i sent to my gf when we started dating and i'm glad i didn't delete them because now they have to look at my junk every time they decide to go snooping around where they shouldn't.
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Not against your will, you accepted this and more in the TOS of your account. But you can avoid it in the permission settings in your phone.
The second biggest lie in Internet: "I've read the Privacy Policies and Terms of Service" the first one "We respect the privacy of the user".
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that's why i straight up delete proprietary corporate apps now whenever possible, even if i don't use them.
they WILL do what they want unprompted, then make it difficult to undo.
Same thing happened to me, and there is a delete all button. Go to Google photos > top right profile pic > backup is off (or whatever it says when it's on) > top right gear > undo backup for this device.
I got sick of GP when they announced AI learning on user photos (or actually that's just the last straw). I use a combination of these two apps now:
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