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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.
Except that in your little analogy, uninstalling the app should correspond to taking the TV away. As a customer, that was my intent when I removed the app. Anything else is sneaky and borderline (?) malicious.
Your analogy just shows that you don't understand the problem. A TV switched on is very obvious. And it's not a privacy issue.
The problem described by the OP is not obvious, and is a privacy problem.
It's non obvious that the app is not doing the back-up.
I understand what's going on, having read the summary, but I would not have guessed that deleting the app that asked me about back-up, and where I make my settings for the back-up, does not delete the back-up functionality
I don't think it's malicious, but I am surprised that Google is sticking to it being the right way for it work.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Deleting the app that you used to change a system-level setting used by other apps should NOT change the setting.
That's a reasonable policy, as long as it is absolutely clear in the app that:
1. it was a system-level setting you were changing,
2. the system would continue to honour that setting independent of the app, and
3. you could subsequently turn the system setting off again by doing X independent of the app.
However, if that wasn't clear, and this setting involves uploading data to Google silently and automatically, then the current behaviour is shady as hell. A device that is recording and/or uploading anything without its user's knowledge, or worse when its user explicitly thinks they have turned that behaviour off, is always a usability and privacy issue, and it is always the software developers' responsibility to fix it.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.