GrapheneOS works great for me. Not a lot you can do on stock android that you can’t do on GrapheneOS. I would highly recommend anyone looking for privacy to look into it. Very very easy to install. Just make sure you have a Pixel phone that is unlocked. I’ve been using it as my daily driver for two years now.
this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2026
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It's also opt in. Although I'd be surprised if anyone commenting here is actually using google photos in the first place.
Well thats just lovely
They weren't already doing this? I'm so glad that I downloaded all my photos and deleted them from Google Photos a few months ago with great hassle, I figured they would abuse them somehow if they hadn't already so decided to de-google.
Fuck all this shit.
Why search for a doctor’s appointment when Google has access to all your calendar events. Why search for a party invite when it reads all your emails. And why search for a specific photo of you and your loved ones to create an image, when it sees all your photos.
They try very hard to sell this as something positive and not the privacy invasive nightmare it is.
Pardon me, starts?
Exactly. It's google. They're scanning EVERYTHING. Even if you don't use google, they probably know about you from OTHERS' devices who are using google.
Thanks family who insisted on digital copies.
That's a terrible article though and seems quite click-baity, it's hard to say what's going on just based on that.
It also says
We’re talking Personal Intelligence, Google’s latest AI upgrade path which lets users opt-in to connecting Google apps to Gemini.
If it's opt-in, it's fine, as long as the user knows what exactly they are opting in for.
Even when they say it's optional, it's never actually optional. They are always enabling it in the background and just preventing you from seeing that.
But even if they actually did use an opt-in system properly, they would still only do that for like 6 months, and then in the next update you'd be forced to use it. And who can stop them? There is no alternative.
No alternative? Immich and Ente are definitely an alternative Google Photos. It ain't that hard to degoogle these days.
You can opt out with this trendy new cocktail that will be all the rage this summer!
If you install immich in your homelab, you can just transfer all the images off your device very easily with the immich app.
Probably the only way to keep them private from big tech. But the long term solution is to not use the official Android or Apple systems and to root your phone and install cyanogenmod or something similar without Google apps.
But that means some apps wont work at all, so thats the price to pay for that freedom.
Or you can just buy a separate camera and stop using your phone for that.
Immich is a nightmare to install.
It was fairly easy with a docker config. What issues did you have?
I just ran their docker compose and it worked out of the box
I've had zero problems installing it and exposing it on one of my subdomains via nginx. I thought it was one of the easiest things to install and configure. Like, no errors or unknowns when installing.
That being said, this isn't something the average user will be or even should be doing. Its a niche product for the tech literate, not an alternative for what cloud providers are offering. I'd not recommend it to anyone who can't tell the difference between "wifi" and "internet".
I'd not recommend it to anyone who can't tell the difference between "wifi" and "internet".
Maybe its because I used nextcloud previously but, immich felt like a breeze to install.
I can give you a docker compose that will just work if you want, as long as you have a domain name and a ingress controller running. But yes, its not easy.
Voiding my privacy, stealing my IP and opening me up to liabilities....and tis all legal... fuck all of you who gargled their balls and betrayed your own interests for what amounts to digital toys.
I appreciate the sentiment. One of the core conflicts I've had with family over the past couple decades has been their unrepentant usage of my data on these platforms. As a result, I never take or share pictures. They've responded over the years by casting suspicion on me, for not capitulating to the status quo, and for wanting to understand the nuts-and-bolts of technology. I've never shared mine nor others' data. I worked in the data economy for about a decade and still, they'd dismiss my well-founded concerns in favor of corporate propaganda and the ego-dopamine loop. "What do you have to hide?" Dumb fucks.
I thought they always did this?
Decision to move to Immich on my own hardware years ago validated
I went back to Polaroid for my nudes.
I've gone even further back, having mine painted on Greek pottery
Can I see?
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I warned most of my family and friends this was going to happen when I de-Googled and set up Immich and they all said I was paranoid.
Don't store your photos on other people's computers. Store them on your computer.
Hope this helps.
and what about off site backup?
If you're willing to self-host, Immich is a fantastic replacement.
Remember BACKUPS!
Absolutely. One of the really nice things about Immich is it stores your files in a normal folder structure. Nothing obscured, very easy to backup.
Encrypted or your own device.
Thanks, I hate it!
Does it matter if you don't update? I imagine they already have it on their servers, which is where I imagine the photos are mostly processed.
Since decades, Google Photos is cloud storage. Update or no, they already got your photos for this.
I never activated cloud storage for Google Photos. Whenever I open it for some reason, it complains about it. I need something non-shittified to go through my gallery, just haven't looked for it very much yet.
Unless you deny network permission for Photos, which I highly recommend.
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This is why I recommend using dedicated cameras that don't connect to the web. Well, one reason, the other reason is because dedicated cameras will always outperform phone cams.
I have Fossify Gallery as my default image viewer but I'm still using the pre-installed Google camera app. Am I affected by this scanning? I haven't gotten around to checking out other camera apps.
We’re talking Personal Intelligence, Google’s latest AI upgrade path which lets users opt-in to connecting Google apps to Gemini. Why search for a doctor’s appointment when Google has access to all your calendar events. Why search for a party invite when it reads all your emails. And why search for a specific photo of you and your loved ones to create an image, when it sees all your photos.
This is coming first to the U.S. before it rolls out everywhere else. Google assures that “bringing personal details into your images shouldn’t mean compromising on privacy, which is why our core commitments haven't changed. The Gemini app does not directly train its models on your private Google Photos library.”
But Google does say “we train on limited info, like specific prompts in Gemini and the model’s responses, to improve functionality over time.” That’s why “connecting your Google apps to Gemini remains an opt-in experience that you can adjust in your settings at any time.” It’s opt-in for a reason. Keep that in mind.
Well, I guess I'm safe for the moment.... But I also just checked and you can't prevent Google photos from accessing your files, so that's concerning....
It looks like I have Google Photos disabled in Settings. Maybe that helps.
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