Slashdot Mirror
Google Photos Uploading Your Pics, Even If You Don't Want It To
New submitter Adekyn writes that, according to David A. Arnott of The Business Journals, the Google Photos app will sync your photos — even after you have deleted the application from your device.
From the article: All I had to do to turn my phone into a stealth Google Photos uploader was to turn on the backup sync, then uninstall the app. Whereas one might reasonably believe uninstalling the app from the phone would stop photos from uploading automatically to Google Photos, the device still does it even in the app’s absence. Since making this discovery, I have re-created the issue multiple times in multiple settings on my Galaxy S5.
I reached out to Google, and after reaching someone on the phone and describing the issue, was told to wait for a comment. Several hours later, I received a terse email that said, “The backup was as intended.” If I want to stop it from happening, I was told I'd have to change settings in Google Play Services.
A video of the process accompanies the article.
By that logic if I had an app for my credit card company. If I deleted the app, my balance should be gone, and my account closed.
I think the biggest sin here is having a third party app that enables and OS Feature. But on the other hand, having delete an app witch will also delete my account, could be a disaster. As I may be getting rid of one device, or not using it for that app, and switching to an other.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The solution is to turn off the uploading in the preferences. The app is just a front end to display pictures from Google Play. Android is what is uploading the pictures.