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So Google is now preventing people from removing location data from photos taken with Pixel phones. (mediacdn.aus.social)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by ajsadauskas@aus.social to c/technology@lemmy.ml

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So Google is now preventing people from removing location data from photos taken with Pixel phones.

Remember when Google's corporate motto was "don't be evil?"

Obviously, accurate location data on photos is more useful to a data mining operation like Google.

From Google: "Important: You can only update or remove estimated locations. If the location of a photo or video was automatically added by your camera, you can't edit or remove the location."

It's enshitification in action.

Source: https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6153599?hl=en&sjid=8103501961576262529-AP

#technology #tech @technology #business #enshitification #Android #Google @pluralistic #infosec

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[–] KelsonV@wandering.shop 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic (I take a lot of photos for iNaturalist and reference photos for OpenStreetMap editing, so I'm constantly turning GPS on for those, and then back off for personal photos, and sometimes I forget.)

[–] sohkamyung@mstdn.io 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@KelsonV

I use the OsmAnd app to take waypoint photos (with GPS info) for iNaturalist. These shots don't get uploaded to Google Photos unless I want them to. I usually copy them to my Download folder for later uploading to iNat.

So I could turn off GPS in the Photo app, and keep personal and iNat shots separate.

https://osmand.net/docs/user/plugins/audio-video-notes/#create-waypoints

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic

[–] KelsonV@wandering.shop 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

@sohkamyung @ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic I should give that a try! I use Vespucci for OSM, and it's similar in that it saves photos to its own folder, but it uses the default camera app, so again I have to turn GPS on before a mapping session and off again afterward.

[–] sohkamyung@mstdn.io 1 points 2 years ago

@KelsonV

I tried using the OsmAnd Audio/Video plugin to take shots using the system photo app with Location Info disabled.

Photos I take directly using the photo app have no location info. But looks like location info is still available with shots taken using the OsmAnd plugin.

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic

[–] sohkamyung@mstdn.io 1 points 2 years ago

@KelsonV

Maybe you could try OSMTracker. It might use its own camera app to take shots.

https://learnosm.org/en/mobile-mapping/osmtracker/

On F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.osmtracker/

@ajsadauskas @technology @pluralistic