Despite the company's efforts to hide its surveillance oman phone number data -based business model , many people concerned about their privacy have taken steps to move away from the Google ecosystem , learning how to deGoogle their lives .
Apart from privacy concerns, Google made promises about Google Photos it didn't keep, such as offering unlimited storage for high-quality photos but later imposing limits(new window)and charges.
This article explains how to safely delete photos from Google Photos without also removing them from your device. It also shows how to remove the Google Photos app and move your pictures to a cloud storage service that actually respects your privacy.
There are good reasons to delete all Google Photos
How to delete photos from Google Photos without deleting from your phone
Using the Google Photos app (on Android or iOS)
Using Google Photos in a browser (on a computer)
How Google Photos syncing works
How to prevent Google Photos from deleting your device photos
How to delete all Google photos and stop using their app
Make your photos private with Proton Drive
There are good reasons to delete all Google Photos
Google can see all your photos uploaded to its cloud, along with all the metadata associated with those photos. The company can scan them with facial recognition(new window)to identify people and determine locations(new window)based on landmarks and other sources. While you can disable face grouping and estimated locations to stop the visible organization and tagging, your photos and their metadata are still managed by Google and accessible to the company according to their data policies(new window).
The upcoming release of Ask Photos(new window)raises more concerns about how Google uses its AI model, Gemini, to provide advanced search and query capabilities within the app. Although Google claims not to use your photos for AI training beyond Google Photos and that people will not review your personal information, the company reserves the right to make exceptions that call for human review.