klionluxe.blogg.se - Google photo privacy policy

Someone’s emails or other documents are hacked or leaked, with the links to photos contained inside for all to see.A database of these links is one day leaked or hacked, or people figure out a pattern in how the ‘secret’ URLs are generated.It’s only OK to link to sensitive things by email if the recipient needs to be logged in to view them. Links sent by email are semi-public because they move across the internet unencrypted, and are simple to intercept, especially for governments.

The recipient naturally thinks the link is only works for them (as would be the case for Drive) and doesn’t take care to prevent it becoming public.

An email thread / document with a link to the photo or album is forwarded or shared with the wrong person, or accidentally posted somewhere public.

How could the ‘secret’ link end up in the wrong hands? Some possibilities: It’s very important only the right people get to see these things! Google is a data company that has a responsibility to its users to make sure that’s the case. People often take photos of things like private documents, or themselves naked. It’s also unacceptable because it creates an excessive risk of sensitive data being exposed. If our private and potentially sensitive data is going to be revealed this way, it should be clear that it’s going on. The only way to convince people is to show them with their own eyes. The interface is so poorly designed that the most common reaction I’ve had when I tell Photos users about this is literal disbelief. Why this is unacceptableįirstly it’s unacceptable because most users don’t realise it’s happening. If you create an album and share it with a specific Google Account, it will create a permanent ‘secret’ URL with all those photos visible to anyone with the link, until you go and delete or completely un-share the Album. And even the Sharing page gives zero indication that you’ve made a publicly visible link rather than just shared a photo with an individual: Nothing in the interface relating to that particular photo will show me. I can only ever find out that I’ve created this permanent semi-public link by going to the ‘Sharing’ tab in Photos, which is very easy to miss.

Nowhere did “Create shared URL” or anything similar appear in the video.įurthermore, the interface looks very similar to Google Drive, which by default only lets people see a file when logged into the specific account it was shared with.ĭrive also lists who a file is shared with when you click the share icon - so people using Photos naturally assume their photos are private when they see that nobody is listed when they click the ‘share’ icon. People constantly tell me I can’t be right about this - it’ll happen in the comments below, I promise - because the interface never indicates that this is going on. And I’d have no way to find out that they were viewing it! If that ‘secret’’ link is ever revealed, anyone anywhere will be able to see it until I go and delete that specific sharing instance. I) another Google Account it wasn’t shared with (25 seconds in), and ii) an incognito window where I’m not logged into any Google Account at all (39 seconds in)! What have you just watched? If I go and share a photo with a specific other Google Account, I can use that link to view it in: (Had I instead shared it with the Photos account visible 4 seconds in, the result would have been identical.)