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Google photos on ios is literally a hostage situation. Remove key functionalities like copying an image or editing an image unless you give them full unrestricted access to your entire photo library. (The holy grail of surveillance capitalism data). Data extortion masquerading as a service.
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Yeah, iOS is nuts.
Transfer files over bluetooth? Best go buy an entire apple product because fuck internationally recognized standards.
Transfer music to the iPhone? Gotta download one of two programs, make an apple account, and sync your entire library. Apple doesn’t support common formats such as FLAC? Go fuck yourself and convert your entire library for them.
Backup your phone to the cloud? Apple doesn’t let you select how many backups are saved so you run out of storage and get an upgrade to apple storage program for only $5.99 every other month/phone update.
I thought google was bad with their tyranny of default but the iphone 16 pro max is the pinnacle of anti user and pro consumerism. I list that phone as it is the only apple phone I have used.
So yes. Both apple and Google are doing this shit. It’s very bad at this point.
I’m genuinely considering getting Huawei with harmonyos as my next phone
Written black on white in 1998 so nearly 3 decades ago by Hal Ronald Varian, chief economist at Google, chapter 5 Recognizing Lock-In and chapter 6 Managing Lock-In with my own notes https://fabien.benetou.fr/ReadingNotes/InformationRules
Namely it’s a strategy. It does not make it “OK” morally or ethically but at least business wise, we had been warned a long long time ago. If despite this been laid out so plainly and methodically we don’t both individually and collectively, keep on using such services then we have to at least understand the consequences.
Edit: want to do something about it? Please do. Use https://takeout.google.com/ to leave then bring your own data in a system you actually manage, e.g. https://immich.app/ or whatever else better fit your need. If you still stay, you are giving Google more power to keep on using your data.
Use Immich.
If you use apple images or whatever the fuck it’s called then they have the same thing. Unless you do their e2ee thing and hope they don’t hold the decryption keys for that.
That is not what “literally” mean lmao.
Just use FOSS software, nobody’s pointing a gun at you. Pretty sure if a real hostage situation survivor reads this s.he will laugh wtf
They made it near impossible to use foss on mobile.
Of all the metaphorical hyperbole situations where “literally” is misused, this one is barely an offender, and actually quite literal.
Because it’s not you that is being held hostage, it is access to functionality and data which are being held hostage at the ransom price of your privacy.
ah yes it’s literally the same thing as being held at gunpoint lmao
Google: “Release the photos, or the editing function gets it”.
It doesn’t involve any animals, but seems pretty hostage-y
Go. outside.
Are you having a stroke?
Yes. It must be because of all the crack I’m shoving into my butthole
People need to get their heads out of the idea that privacy is any kind of rule. It isn’t. It’s an exception. Unless you personally use a private dns server, unless you personally use a VPN, encrypt your files, use custom roms and open software for interacting with the internet, then you should assume that you’re just an open book.
How could they steal and sell my data!?OF COURSE, they’d steal and sell my data!
Careful, tho. You get hardcore into privacy and security and you’ll basically have a side-gig of constantly checking for leaks and reading product reviews for “linux support”.
I had this back in the day. No phone app. Just browser. Also there is a limit on how many photos it’ss displayed at one time.
I switched to Xpenology. Not sure if it’s still the same issues.
Wow, this is such a relevant take. It’s honestly frustrating how essential tools today are locked behind privacy trade-offs. We’re gradually being conditioned to exchange convenience for control—often without even realizing it. And the worst part? We normalize it, one app permission at a time.
At HappyOuting, we think about this deeply—not just in terms of digital tools, but how they shape our travel experiences too. We believe travel should reconnect you with Nature, not provide fuel for data pipelines. Whether it is about capturing a Himalayan sunrise or roaming down a quiet forest path, our philosophy views digital mindfulness as a way to ensure that memories are kept between them and not commoditized.
Because experiences should inspire, not extract. Freedom should feel like fresh air, not a feature hidden behind settings.
Grateful for posts like these that push the conversation forward. If you ever want to see how a travel collective can work with privacy-first values, feel free to visit us at HappyOuting.in 🌿
Let’s keep building spaces that are intentional, human, and free.
Could we keep these spaces you speak of free of advertisements?
Bro. This is the fediverse. Don’t crap where you (we) live.
we think about this deeply—not just in terms of digital tools
Eh… if that’s genuinely the case, absolutely nothing at all on your link show it. There is no open source repository about the page, all social networks are centralized surveillance-capitalism fueled platform, there is no mention of image or video sharing on e.g. Immich, PeerTube, PixelFed, etc.
You have the potential for something actually great here, and maybe you actually believe in what your are saying, but there is 0 sign of it.
Please do better.
Man posting this has three photos of a stump he removed once, 10 photos of a trip to Spain and 3 selfies done by his niece
if you’re not paying for a product, then YOU are the product being monetized.
Thank you for the wise words, you convinced me to ditch my free Linux installation in favor of a paid Windows license. Does anyone know a good paid alternative to the spyware VLC?
Or just donate to your distro and vlc
Stop using Google trash. Google is evil.
That’s what you get for using a Google product.
This is actually an iOS issue, their permissions aren’t fine-grained enough so every photo app would need access to the whole photo library. The reason people don’t notice this is because Apple Photos has access by default
The irony of complaining about unreasonable requirements from an Apple user isn’t lost on me.
I don’t know if the format really applies. Complaining about one corporation stealing your data while using another’s product that does the same seems a bit pointless, especially when there are cheaper, better alternatives. The putting a stick through your own bike tire format seems more appropriate.
What are the cheaper better alternatives? I would really love to have a phone that works with most modern things, is private and not by a big corpo, but as far I can tell, it doesn’t exist.
Anyone that claims Apple is stealing their data is drastically misinformed to the point where it feels like a rationalization.
Google does it, Facebook does it, Apple does not. Ask any engineer who works at these companies and they can confirm it.
It is frustrating to Apple engineers with how heavily restricted user data is. There are literally committees at Apple who default to No for any request. They do not profit off your data, they profit off the mark up on hardware and services.
Thinking it’s a both/all sides thing is how much be enabled bad actors. The GOP is an example and anyone who falls for the corporate version is no smarter than anyone who falls for the political version. Luckily, it’s not a lonely place to be.
Common sense is no longer common. Feelings have trumped all logic on the majority of Americans as well as the world population at large.
That is absolute bullshit. I worked for Apple, training Siri. Through false positive we heard unsuspecting people having sex and dealing drugs while their real names and addresses were on the screen.
https://gizmodo.com/apple-agrees-to-95-million-settlement-in-siri-eavesdropping-lawsuit-2000544806
You’re wrong about that, you’re wrong about politics, and you made voting for a genocider your entire personnality. It’s pretty sad really
Ask any engineer who works at these companies and they can confirm it.
Yeah ask the engineers who work for a company who’s whole schtick is to pretend to be privacy friendly that it does not steal user data. They’ll definitely tell us.
There are literally committees at Apple who default to No for any request.
Yeah well, Facebook had an ethics committee too, so they’ve always been ethical then huh?
But but but Apple is different…
Anyone who claims these companies have users best interest at heart are gullible people at best or a cult.
you need more of that “common sense” than using your feelings to dictate what multi billion companies are doing with your data.
…Apple does not.
Apple absolutely does collect personal data from its users and uses that data to target advertising. They openly disclose this in their policy statements.
Stating that
They do not profit off your data
is unjustifiable when Apple makes BILLIONS from advertising.
They also have been fined by European regulators when their practices ran afoul of privacy law.
Just because they’re not as bad as Google (quite a low bar) it doesn’t mean they’re as good as they try to sell you on.
If missing the point was an Olympic sport you’d be a gold medalist.
What’s the point? criticising me for complaining about an issue that is on my grandma’s phone that I encountered?
Like yes we get apple is shit, so is android. My grandma is 90 and not loaded with cash I can’t just put her on graphene os.
This is a real way she’s having her data mined. Because other parts of the family insist on using google photos for the “family album”.
The what did you expect with apple as if everyone is a tech savy person with enough free time to maintain a custom rom and money to just straight up buy a new phone when they learn there’s isn’t perfect just ends up dismissing valid criticism.
Couple things here
You made a criticism, other people are allowed to criticize what you said.
Using the excuse of “not loaded with cash” is one I’m confused about. New or used, Pixels (Or some Motos if the Pixel is not available in your country) are cheaper than iPhones.
You seem tech savy enough to use Fedi/Lemmy, why not help them transition to a better solution for their privacy by either buying an ente subscription where they manage hosting and you dont have to worry about that, or using (free) Immich which you have to host yourself but is well worth setting up. You can even import all of your google photos albums and photos 1:1 into Immich as they are on GPhotos.
It is valid to criticize apple. They are a company who likes to taught “privacy” when they are not any better than any other phone manufacturer, no one has denied this. You just seem to find it impossible to be able to criticize both Apple, and consumers who seem to know better (You seem to be aware of Custom ROMs, as you brought it up first).
No one is trying to attack you or your family here. The OP commentor made a joke out of an observation. A valid obervation, as why would you expect Apple or Google to take your privacy in consideration. Yes, it sucks. Yes, it should change, but that change is not going to come from continuing to get fucked by them. You dont need a custom ROM to use Immich or ente. You dont have to allow companies to fuck you. The longer you let them, the harder it is to get out.
Also personal tangent, theres no “maintaining a custom ROM” unless youre building your own ROM. Most recommended custom ROMs auto-update, and dont need any more “maintainence” than an iPhone or stock android.
Technically it’s Foxconn that pays their wages and taxes. The comic obviously has a point though. Minus the Fairphone (overpriced for its spec and likely going to get shorter software support than any iPhone since the 5 it 5S), the options are all shit and include some form of modern slavery. IPhones just get the most attention while Samsung literally runs a country. We can’t just all stop owning modern electronical devices altogether.
>Uses applications from the most privacy-destroying ad agency in the history of the world
>Is surprised that they don’t respect privacy.
Isn’t the point of google photos to back up your entire photo library?
speaking from experience, I could do without 700,000,000 memes saved since 2012 in with sentimental family photos
So do you want to give Google Photos access to only specific folders or something?
I think the use case of google photos is to just back up all your photos. If you want something more granular, you probably need a different app.
I mean I dont want to give Google photos access to any of my files, Ive since left their platform behind and switched to something more private. I feel like at one point on Android you could pick and choose which folders got backed up, but thats memories from like, Android 8 so im not positive about that.
Pretty sure you can select the folders in google photos too
Ah, but if you run out of space in your backup, you might think “I’ll just delete some of those photos from my backup”.
And then you go back to your device to find it’s deleted them there too!
I see that. But this is more of a use case issue than a google photos has too much permissions issue.
If you want to delete a photo you need full permissions to that photo.
