Google photos sent some user data to strangers

[Acetwice]

What do you think guys about these recent news? Expert comment: Google Photos video bug Good think I disabled Google photos..

 

[Neemobeer]

I would consider any data leak bad and it would be considered a security incident. In the grand scheme of data leaks it has minimal impact and legal ramifications. Since it was video data it's not PII data and the leak size was pretty small compared to a lot of other leaks. Roughly 100,000 users were affected. There have been countless data leaks in the past year along that are in the millions of records of PII data leaked or publicly exposed.

 

[Axel PC]

Database leaks are something that concerns more than apps/services using my metadata to target ads at me.
I use some cloud services but not Google photos. However, almost all of us have even more personal information in the cloud than photos and videos. All banking, mortgage, tax etc information are in the cloud in some form now a days, actually have been since before "cloud" was a normal part of our vocabulary.

I wouldn't stop using services like Google Photos because it's important to all of us that we have our photos and videos backed up. The days of your HD dying or losing your phone with the photos and videos on it aren't the end all be all.

I think staying informed about these issues and making sure you have all security and privacy settings enabled are all you can really do IF you choose to use these services. I don't have the time nor knowledge to run a home network storage system, take everyone's devices and make sure they're stuff is being backed up, checking that the network system is running fine has all the constant updates that come out and in the end these devices are vulnerable same as the cloud services. And I think I'd be more likely to screw things up because of human error and busy family life versus people who are paid to maintain such services and there's multiple back ups of everything.

What do you think @Acetwice?

 

[Axel PC]

I would consider any data leak bad and it would be considered a security incident. In the grand scheme of data leaks it has minimal impact and legal ramifications. Since it was video data it's not PII data and the leak size was pretty small compared to a lot of other leaks. Roughly 100,000 users were affected. There have been countless data leaks in the past year along that are in the millions of records of PII data leaked or publicly exposed.

Yeah I agree with you. In the grand scheme of database leaks it wasn't that bad. And the headlines were dramatic because they have Google's name in it and millions use Google Photos. So all those users immediately freak out.