Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
What proof do you have that you in fact pressed no ?
Also, didn't you press I agree to anything that gives google indemnity against any of this when you first turned on the phone ?
I think you would need a complete video recording from fresh firmware wipe to the action you describe happening, to establish it is or isn't happening.
Google will have make sure that proving them in the wrong takes a whole lot of effort
That all sounds like on-device behavior. You didn't say anything about it actually being uploaded.
Faschist company with a faschist government. Stop asking for legal, take control, go Open Source.
Well, next time, make sure you have your settings set correctly - test with a few pictures at first...
I use pCloud, and it works great for my needs. I have deleted everything I had ever uploaded to Google, besides the simplest backup from my mobile phone, so I can easily restore it, if my phone breaks and I need a new one.
Pcloud has a backdoor. By default end to end encryption is off (and it can be turned off again)
If you were using Photos as a photo roll app you need to stay angry at yourself a while longer. That's on you when you should know you cannot trust the G. Don't grant an app permissions to photos and videos that could sync it to the cloud. And as another precaution, don't keep sensitive pictures in the DCIM folder. If I have to take pictures of sensitive documents like that I disable WiFi (sync set up on WiFi only), take the picture, move it to a folder that's never backed up elsewhere on my phone, and then turn WiFi back on.
You are not normal because you care about these things. The normal user doesn't care and that's who they are catering for. I'm not excusing their behavior (I don't like it either) and at the same time you need to be more on your toes.
I'm planning to move to Ente this year when my Google cloud subscription runs out. Not looking forward to the work it entails but to the [paints face blue] FREEDOM!
I use Adguard and block Google photos from connecting to the internet.
Features like edit video still work, so I'm good. If editing didn't work, I'd disable it.
If you disable Google photos storage access you don't even have a camera roll :/
That's how embedded the damn thing is
OpenCamera is better anyway
Oh damn really? I was just about to tell OP why didn't they just delete Google Photos and use something like Aves instead. But if disabling/deleting the app disables camera roll then that's total bullshit. That should be like lawsuit worthy, I shouldn't have to use your app to have pictures, especially when that service is doing sneaky uploads.
I just checked,
google photos has permanent access to photos and videos. If you disable the app the camera roll no longer works. I get "activity not found".
Maybe with a FOSS camera app it might still work? I haven't tried.
Edit: and that is the only permission which it has ( photos and videos ). Everything else ( location, contacts, ... ) is not allowed. But that one permission is auto permanently allowed.
Just don't install gapps. Its missing by default when you install the OS..
install e/os:
https://doc.e.foundation/devices/FP5
or:
CalyxOS releases are paused, but when they are back: https://calyxos.org/
e/os is most likely my next step, especially with Google disabling installing "unverified" third-party apps in 2026.
Bought a FP5 with e/os in mind as a possible upgrade path, I just was too worried to immediately do the full jump.
Yes, I've installed e/os on my fairphone 5 and it just works. I even got my banking apps to work.
Hmm... I wonder... does GrapheneOS work on the Fairphone?
They don't and in their typical style they've written a very verbose post or two on why
Huh, link to their explanation?
I don't but its been posted a couple of times on Mastodon, I assume its on their blog and in their forms too.
The jist is Fairphone doesn't have the security HW to run it
Additional tip: You can use the universal android debloater tool to remove built in apps on your phone.
Check out Aves Libre on F-Droid
I had to ditch Google Photos app because of my paranoia, about this exact same thing that happened to you.
I was gonna say something about postmarketOS, but it's not ready yet. Mobian is also not ready for it either.
So next best option if you really wanna get rid of this type of stuff is either rooting your device to remove what you don't need or flashing something like GrapheneOS or a different OS.
But I'd consider that a last resort if you already have everything set up just right and have things you don't wanna lose and can't backup easily. That, and if it's a work related device, you're screwed.