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Google Admits Some Private Videos in Google Photos Were Sent to Strangers

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google photosGoogle has emailed some users of Google Photos to inform them that some of their private videos were accidentally sent to strangers, reports 9to5Google.

The "technical issue" is said to have affected people who used the Google Takeout service to download their data between November 21 and November 25 last year. The problem resulted in a small number of users receiving videos in their archive that weren't theirs.

Google said that only 0.01 percent of Google ‌Photos‌ users attempting Takeouts were affected. But given that it has previously boasted of having over 1 billion Photos users, that number is still significant.

According to Google, the technical issue has been fixed and it has "conducted an in-depth analysis to help prevent this from ever happening again."

The tech giant apologized for the inconvenience caused to affected users and advised them to delete their last Takeout export, then perform another download of their ‌Photos‌ content.

Top Rated Comments

85 months ago

I agree, what alternatives? I work in a school district with 4,000+ students & staff. Non-free systems would get exceedingly expensive, as is the infrastructure needed for in-house e-mail systems. Plus, with the amount of services included (Email, Docs/Drive, Classroom, etc.), and how so many 3-rd party web sites have a "Log-in with Google" system, it's difficult to find an inexpensive and interconnected system to do all that.
It's free in the sense that your data and profile pay for it. You have to weigh your privacy against the costs of a more secure system.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
85 months ago
What is a good alternative to gmail that is free to use and comes with as much storage?
Why insist it be free? Storage costs money. Bandwidth costs money. Servers cost money. Upkeep/admin costs money. Electricity costs money. If you want all that "for free", then you're the product, not the customer, and the provider is going to sell you, and/or access to you, to the highest bidder.

You can get paid email service from many sources for not that much money.

If you've paid for an iOS or macOS device, you can get an email account from Apple with some storage, for no additional cost. And Apple isn't selling your information or access to you (the email is a value-added bit that's part of the "Apple Tax" that people complain about). If you want more storage, Apple will rent it to you for a very modest price.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Crowbot Avatar
85 months ago
Honestly, with all the alternatives, I don't get why people still use Google.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
darkpaw Avatar
85 months ago

Only .01%? That's till 100,000 people.
Ah, the good ol' trick of talking about the lower number because the larger number would be more damaging.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Solomani Avatar
85 months ago
Google, Facebook, *******. Is there really any difference any more? :cool:
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ck2875 Avatar
85 months ago
Well hopefully no one was storing their sexy time videos on there.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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