Google Photos sent users’ private videos to total STRANGERS in major privacy blunder
GOOGLE has admitted to sending users’ private videos to complete strangers in a major privacy bungle.
The videos were stored on Google Photos, and mistakenly sent to other users last November.
According to Google, the issue relates to the Google Takeout tool.
It’s used to let users download their data from Google app – as a back-up or for use with other apps.
But Google accidentally “exported” videos stored in Google Photos to the archives of total strangers.
Google is now warning affected users about the very serious blunder.
The issue only affects users who requested back-ups between the dates of November 21 and 25 last year.
Some of your videos may have been visible to other people who were also downloading their data.
Google confirmed that the issue didn’t affect photos or other types of files.
And Google isn’t telling users exactly which files were taken, instead saying “one or more videos” were affected per account.
The issue is relatively small, with less than 0.01% of users attempting Takeouts affected.
However, it’s a very serious privacy gaffe for such a popular service – owned by a sophisticated and profitable tech giant.
Google gaffe – what's the expert opinion?
Here's what Javvad Malik, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4. told The Sun...
- “It’s good to see that Google was able to identify and fix the problem relatively quickly.
- “While the issue was limited to videos being incorrectly shared when downloading an archive.
- “It is a data breach and impacted the privacy of users.
- “Many users trust cloud providers, especially for photos and videos which are automatically backed up from mobile devices.
- “It is imperative that cloud providers maintain that trust through robust security measures that allow users to restore their data, while at the same time, ensuring data is kept safe from accidental or malicious leaks.”
In a statement, Google said: “We are notifying people about a bug that may have affected users who used Google Takeout to export their Google Photos content between November 21 and November 25.
“These users may have received either an incomplete archive, or videos – not photos – that were not theirs.
“We fixed the underlying issue and have conducted an in-depth analysis to help prevent this from ever happening again.
“We are very sorry this happened.”
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And Google recently warned that billions of website passwords have been hacked.
Do you trust Google to protect your privacy? Let us know in the comments!
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