Dangers of technology

[Aeslyn]

Oops... I may have just been outed by my phone and google+.
I got a new phone a while back, galaxy s4. I took some pics of myself yesterday... of Aeslyn that is. Apparently my phone auto-uploads my photos to my google+ account. This is something that was turned on by default.
I work with technology. I do web and game content development and I am an anthropologist with interests in cyberculture and computer mediated commutations, I should have been more aware of this. But some how I slipped. Even the best of us can slip at times I guess.
It just bugs me that companies like google, apple, microsoft, and facebook seem to be going out of their way to destroy any potential to keep secrets. Me standing in front of my mirror taking a pic of myself in my CK bra should not be auto-uploaded to my google+ profile. Ok, so as an academic I know it is not the companies' fault. They are simply responding to a demand for convenience by the technology using community. For most of the internet using population it is zero f***s given about privacy and are far more concerned with posting everything online quickly and easily. These are trends I have watched for years. But now, people who do want to keep a secret or two suffer as a result.
Ok, a little bit of a rant, but oh well.
I was just wondering how common stuff like this is. How many of us have had technology seem to conspire to out us?

[Katey888]

Good point Aeslyn - I'm sure you weren't the first and won't be the last, but hope that nothing damaging comes of the automated revelation... :eek:

For me, this is a strong case for partitioning: Katey has her own email and Google account - that's it. No FB, Twitter, yibber-yabber, whatever - and there are minimal links between this virtual world and reality... worked in technology all my life but still don't believe that all progress is good progress..

Perhaps the first big lawsuit where someone (perhaps you...?) takes Google to the cleaners over some inadvertent disclosure will make the default setting more private... :)

I do worry about my photos sometimes...

Katey x

[Sarah Smith]

Yeah there are a lot of new ways to out yourself by mistake these days, in your case i wouldnt be overly worried as its only google + :P thankfully not Facebook! A lot more people on Facebook! Anyhoo hope it gets hidden away quickly and there isn't a negative consequence! :(
Hugs
Clara x

[Rebekah_uk]

As much as technology is a handy tool, it can also be a terrible thing as well. Outing yourself by mistake could lead to all sorts of consequences down the road.

[Eryn]

Google, et al. want to sell your information so it is to their advantage for you to have no privacy. If you use their services you have actually agreed to this via an "accept" button you clicked on some time. This, and the fact that they are rich enough to have lawyers sitting there on salary, is what protects them from lawsuits.

The real danger is where there is a technological bridge between your selves. I'm too cheap to have a separate phone for Eryn so I must accept the risk that one of the photos on my phone might inadvertently be sent to the wrong place. I try to minimize the possibility of this happening by not using Google+, Facebook, or other "engulf and devour" social media at all. I use a separate camera for most of Eryn's photography but I still keep in touch with friends via text messaging and sometimes when out and about the only camera that I have is my phone. It boils down to simply being careful.

[Taylor Ray]

Now the NSA has two files on you! You go girl!

[KaceyR]

Yeah it's rougher to track and separate the tech and CDing life.
Myself I currently have Kacey on a seperate email/Google (gmail) and on her own facebook.
But it's rough to do some of these things as technically they only consider one person using a phone...
There's no consideration for multiple people using the device (nevermind that the multiple people are in the same body :) )
I run the gmail email client and while it accesses to view the email accounts for both the male side and Kacey,
But I ran into an issue where I was trying to email out as Kacey...and it only would send out as the male side. rather annoying...

It would be nice to have something like a windows phones that could do something like PCs to have multiple users.. then "login" under the different username for access to that side's apps/data. Then everything running under Kacey would show just Kacey items, pics as Kacey, and even web browsing history/favorites as Kacey instead of mixing with the 'guy data'. Apparently that doesn't happen yet on windows phones... they do make a small "kids" corner place in the windows phone to limit things for say a parent turning the phone over to their kids.. but that's about it. no true multi-user setup.

Otherwise I currently use an iPhone.
Because of the dual ID, and also playing with anime and other stuff..that was one thing I made sure to do-prevent camera pics auto uploading anywhere.
Think some of that can be arranged to happen to instagram and other sites as well...but it's not a CD friendly thing..heh. (unless you're fully out to everybody I guess :))

[Nicole Erin]

People are always wanting to invade privacy. Their main interest is trying to find ways to part the public from their money. For me I do not have any money to part with so they do not bug me.

This might be off track but get this -
So "they" try to stick their nose in everyone's business but sometimes it backfires. Remember when GLBT had to stay in the closet? Others would try to out them. Today it is different - not only are GLBT often "out" but telling people they have to accept it.
So it comes full circle - people stick their nose where it doesn't belong and then they get their noses rubbed in something they do not like.

OH and another thing - how come supposedly a street camera or whatever can scan your face and pull up every piece of recorded info yet when it is to YOUR benefit, all the sudden they play stupid and want you to prove everything?

[Norma_CD]

Yeah I had the same thing happen to me.

But thankfully, by default, 'sharing' is off, so your secret is still safe.

[natcrys]

Hmmm.. that does suck that these things are on auto-upload! I hope that if someone sees those photos.. you can claim it was for a bet or a prank or something.

I noticed on my HTC One that every time I start the Facebook app (which is linked to my boy-account) after I've taken photos with that phone.. it "suggests" to upload those photos. I have to be very careful not to touch those photos lest they be uploaded inadvertently! Still have to figure out how to turn that "feature" off.

Other than that.. I run all my Tassia things in a separate browser and apps, thus minimising the chance something might be uploaded to my boy-Facebook. Still.. no such thing as reducing to 0%.

I should actually just get a second phone for my Tassia things.. no worries then. Perhaps I can get a cute pink one! :D

[Rachel292]

I hope you managed to delete them from Google as soon as you found out, and that no permanent damage has been done.

I got an Android tablet as week or so ago (sort of birthday present for myself) - 1st thing I did was to create 2 profiles with seperate passwords one for 'male me' and the other for private 'stuff' i.e. Rachel (told my daughter it was for the 'voluntary work' that I do, and need it seperate for security.
Again I seperate everything as much as i can. I am currently managing about 6 email accounts using 'outlook' in one profile , but i'm working on seperate profiles for male me and Rachel (suitably disguised) - all of my (Rachel's) files are in protected folders. And I live on my own.

[Aly Cat]

I had a similar issue with Google+. Google merged their plus system with YouTube comments. I commented on a TS video and my comment got broadcast to all my circles. My parents included. It put my mother in bed for 2 days and my dad wrote me a very long email. I deleted my Google+ account and wrote them a nasty letter. I can no longer comment on YouTube because I don't have a pls account. Life lesson learned...

[AnntoAnn]

I have also fallen fowl of the phone thing! a while back I was showing someone at work the merits of the Galaxy S4 and let them handle it to get the feel. When they said "who's the picture of?" I could have died as they turned the phone around to sow me a close up photo of Ann. As quick as a flash I said it was my sister! (yes I do have one) she just said she looked nice and carried on trying my phone. I normally delete images as soon as they have transferred to my dropbox account but it appears I missed 3!! I'm pretty sure I got away with it.

Ann x

[Genny B]

A word of caution to add to this. Even when I delete the picture right after taking it because I didn't like it, it was still uploaded to G+!
Genny B

[Julia Red]

Aeslyn, that's cool, I'm a game dev myself, and I also don't like some of the things they do to "customize" things for us.

On my home PC, for instance, there was a time when every site that I visited was showing ads of lingerie, woman's clothing and makeup. I'm not bothered with that, but what if I have a guest and they ask to use the PC? Or if I want to show them something? They'll see all the ads and know what I've been browsing.

I acess facebook at work sometimes, and there were ads of lingerie too (the ad was showing the panties that I've bought!). I learned how to remove them, but then again, they were showing things I didn't want others to see.

Another site that's been bothering me is youtube. If I watch videos while logged on google (which is like, always), they'll stay registered on my account, and appear when I acess my account at work. One of these days there was some make-up videos on my "recommended channels" section, and if was not quick some of my co-workers would see it.

[Jackie7]

I am socially out and attend parties and events dressed, so I'm sometimes caught in other people's Facebook photos. I don't mind being identified as Jackie, but just as often I get tagged with my full name. And the trouble with that is, I'm Facebook friends with several of my grandchildren, to whom (I imagine) I'm not out. Or maybe I am and just don't know it.

[Ms. Alexis]

Best rule is if you want to take pictures, get a camera! ... Smartphones are very very invasive devices from logging your position to all the evils already mentioned. I Love photography, and at times love to dress and of course we all like to combine the things we love ;-). I guess the real point is that in this day and age if you want to keep something private keep it off of or out of anything that you share in any way with the world. Even computers are only marginally safe and can bite you if you don't pay attention, and once somethings out - It is Out forever because anything you send you can delete, but out in the www on multiple servers that your intimate stuff just passed through is a copy just waiting to come back to haunt you some day! Scary indeed, especially if your not completely out in every facet of your life (which most of us are not). I'm out with my family, my wife and even my kids, but it would still damage me in the community and especially at work if my gender identity came out. So if you want to take pics, use a real camera (and not a www enabled one!) and don't post anywhere.. because there are so many ways to connect one thing to another that it more than likely isn't a matter of "IF" it's really a matter of "When".
Really hoping that all of the things that I did when Yahoo chat rooms with Video were Hot with rooms for every interest is now buried too deep to be recovered in the bowels of the internet (along with anything anyone video captured!).... But that's another story!

[Adriana Moretti]

yeah...today you gotta be a little tech savy.....lotta gals are getting caught out there , there are so many ways...and i see it happen too often...the one that still stumps me is girls wondering why ads for makeup & crossdressing keep popping up on them.

[lingerieLiz]

If you don't want to have your picture on the web don't take it with a phone and don't store it on your computer. That is why I don't have my picture here. I'm pretty open and out, but I don't want to have a situation where it could be used against me. Believe me first thing lawyers do is head for the social media and search engines. Amazing what can be found. One other thing to understand is some search engines capture the serial number of the network card in your computer. They then can relate all the users of that PC. Thats how sites can know if you are on which computer.

[Dani0948]

I had a similar situation with my tablet. I received an email from google+ with a bunch of pics I had taken. I was able to delete them, but there was a notice that it would take 10 days. So far no negative outcome. I did turn off the default upload. I also use ingognito mode in my browser. As far as I can tell it seems to be working. Of course google probably has everything already.

[chelyann]

try a simple phone that makes calls ONLY !!! (just my 2 cents) :) :)

[Ressie]

My camera automatically loads photos to dropbox which I have some shared folders, but the photos folder should be private (hopefully). My phone isn't smart enough to do much. I have to use bluetooth to transfer one photo at a time to my computer.

I've been using Gmail for years, started using their calendar, haven't really done anyting with google+, and I don't like how google and youtube merged. Youtube has been urging me to use my gmail username on youtube which is my real name with my picture! I already have a youtube account with a unique user name. Grrr!

I have yahoo email for all CD contacts. Hopefully yahoo won't out me somehow :(

[Kate Simmons]

Like everything else, too much technology is not necessarily a good thing. The more "bells and whistles" something has, the more that can (and will) go wrong. My philosophy is KISS (keep it simple stupid). :battingeyelashes::)

[CarlaWestin]

Katey has her own email and Google account - that's it. No FB, Twitter, yibber-yabber, whatever

This is how I keep Carla and Charles separate. Also, my cellphone doesn't even do text. I tend to stay away from G+ on both accounts. On the android tablet there's a built in browser that logs on as Carla with bookmarks for Carla stuff and email. The built in google browser and email client are strictly Chuck stuff. (boring) As far as those generated ads go, I've had wonderful success with Privacyfix. Not a commercial endorsement. It just works.

[kimdl93]

I never take pictures of myself with my cell, and on those rare occasions when I photographed myself I used a digital camera. I also took precautions to assure that the auto uplink between my computer and google was disabled. Also I don't allow google+ to auto upload even routine photos. One has to think ahead.

[Felicia Dee]

I'm an amateur tech grrl... built my own rig for games and art... savvy with software and mid level programming... but I am also a bit paranoid for exactly the reason described here... SO... "Wednesday" has an e-life separate from my male self. ;)

[Krisi]

I use a camera to take pictures and a telephone to make phone calls. Old fashioned? Perhaps but I don't really need a combination device and a dedicated camera seems to take better pictures.

I also watch what I put on the Internet and Krisi doesn't go there except for this forum. All Krisi's photos are on a portable storage device not linked to the Internet.

[Secret Drawer]

Perhaps someone could start a sticky thread with how to deal with all of this technology. I love the ease of having all MAC stuff that communicates back and forth, but my brother in law asked me if he could have my Icloud info so he could share photos? I didn't even really know what that was (a virtual harddrive that you can give access to all your friends to!) He has already (unknowingly) seen an image of "alter"me on photoshop when I opened the program for him one day and it opened to the last thing I was working on! I don't want to upload my stuff to Icloud or facebook or anything else for that matter... So how about it? Get our Tech wizz folks their own How To... Sticky thread?

[sometimes_miss]

I don't think there should be any surprise that corporations will use every means at their disposal to increase their profits, including making your whole life public; after all, lots of people simply love to share every damn thing in their life with the world. Consider facebook and twitter, instagram, etc., and how many people really believe that the world needs and enjoys everything about them! Then consider that every bit of data is collected to marketing firms who sell your information. Just assume the worst possible outcome of each of your actions, and you will remain mostly private, and safe. I googled myself after reading this thread, and found.....nothing.

[Megan Thomas]

So how about it? Get our Tech wizz folks their own How To... Sticky thread?

Not sure you need to be a tech wizz. It's quite simple - once something moves beyond the confines of your head you risk it being shared. Don't want to be found out? Keep it to yourself, completely and utterly.

For many years I was a "tech wizz" and the number of times I saw compromising data on clients computers I repaired was unreal. I'm talking everything from money being sent offshore surreptitiously to images of bizarre porn. That was back in the days when BBS were all the rage and the world wide web was barely getting going. It's only going to get worse, as the time between then and now have already proven.

What's worrying (for me) is when I show younger friends what is possible to find out from their online activities, rather than being met with outrage or horror, they tend to shrug their shoulders and accept the loss of privacy as acceptable and part of life. Sad...

[Beverley Sims]

Aeslyn,
I totally see where you are coming from.
I use Firefox and this has some intrusive software that I dislike also.
Any phone I use has to be a dumb fone.
I have plenty of cameras and computers even when traveling to look after my affairs.
LinkedIn and Facebook?
No thank you.

[Aeslyn]

Good point Aeslyn - I'm sure you weren't the first and won't be the last, but hope that nothing damaging comes of the automated revelation... :eek:

For me, this is a strong case for partitioning: Katey has her own email and Google account - that's it. No FB, Twitter, yibber-yabber, whatever - and there are minimal links between this virtual world and reality... worked in technology all my life but still don't believe that all progress is good progress..

Perhaps the first big lawsuit where someone (perhaps you...?) takes Google to the cleaners over some inadvertent disclosure will make the default setting more private... :)

I do worry about my photos sometimes...

Katey x

I also tend to keep things quite separate. Aeslyn would be my main user on this pc if I didn't have to use it for work. But since I do I use linux on a vm for everthing Aeslyn and she has her our emails, including gmail, and other various accounts. But different phone? No, I have two already and that is more than I can handle lol.


Now the NSA has two files on you! You go girl!

Lol, my laugh for the morning.


I hope you managed to delete them from Google as soon as you found out, and that no permanent damage has been done.



Yeah, I got them deleted from my google account, but there were there for about a day before I knew and once something is on the internet it is out in cyberspace and beyond your control. Maybe the images will never be seen again, and maybe they will. I use google+ for work though, it's required with something we are working on, and my account is linked to the development so... hopefully no one was looking on the weekend. Luckily, though, my boss called me last night and he said nothing about it. He is the person I would be most worried about.



As far as the advertising people have mentioned I can only say, oh I am missing out it seems. Lingerie ads? I'd love em. But I use firefox and chrome and in both of them I have adblock plus installed so I never get to see ads really.

[Stephanie47]

Krisi, you are not alone. We don't even have a cell phone. I watched a segment on 20-20 last night. The invasion of privacy is rampant. I have one hotmail account (personal) and two gmail (one for crap and one for this forum) accounts. I do not have a debit card.


I use a camera to take pictures and a telephone to make phone calls. Old fashioned? Perhaps but I don't really need a combination device and a dedicated camera seems to take better pictures.

I also watch what I put on the Internet and Krisi doesn't go there except for this forum. All Krisi's photos are on a portable storage device not linked to the Internet.

One of the things one should be aware of when posting pictures on the Internet is the ability for a person to track you down. If you do not turn off your GPS feature on the cell phone, the GPS coordinates will be imprinted on the picture. I've watched a segment showing how easy it was for a person to do that. It is real easy for a tech savvy child predator to track down your child.

[carhill2mn]

Yours is a good example of how current technology can cause many problems. Recently, there have been many articles re: how Google and many other companies are capturing and using peoples information in ways that were never imagined. Usually, a person only learns about this after unexpected things have happened.

A good rule of thumb is that once you press "send" your data is in the internet world, maybe forever.

[MsVal]

MsVal's other brain is a moderately paranoid, tech savvy, IT manager. He partitioned, encrypted, firewalled, and obscured nearly everything with security layered four-deep. And what happened? He got so frustrated having to jump through hoops of his own making that he rolled back nearly all of it. And what happened then? -nothing-

He did, however retain his physical security. That is, there is no connection between the camera and the Internet based file storage site. The site has no connection with any social media sites, and his social media sites have no connection with each other.

His digital photos are stored on a flash drive labeled "Warning: Sample viruses for penetration testing."

Best wishes
MsVal

[MatildaJ.]

I was just looking into this. Google claims that the photos uploaded from your camera-phone will not be visible to others through Google+:

>> Auto Backup...automatically backs up photos and videos from your mobile device to Google+ (and they will be private unless you choose to share them). >>

Also, here's how to turn off Auto Backup:
>> Open the Google+ app > touch the menu icon/button > Settings > Auto Backup > Toggle On or Off >>

[Megan Thomas]

digital photos are stored on a flash drive labeled "Warning: Sample viruses for penetration testing."

That reminds me of an incident many years ago (think WordPerfect & DOS days). I wanted to test the trustworthiness of a friend prior to asking him to hold data backups for me. I asked him to store a floppy disk containing what he thought were business letters. It also contained a simple virus which would slowly corrupt the screen display until rebooted, then repeating itself. It was just the following weekend when I got a phone call from him telling me his PC was faulty and asking me to help him fix it. Clearly he'd inserted the disk and opened the files. I removed the virus but never did tell him what caused it. He also never got entrusted with my data, though we did remain friends for many years afterwards. Human nature to be curious I guess...

[reb.femme]

I really should separate the two sides of life. I had to send an email to a work colleague from my home laptop, which carries four email accounts. My rebsweb email account was set as default and I was sure I had sent said email from that one, as an extremely cold feeling shot through my core. Luckily, I had sent it with my main 'male me' account.

Had it gone from my rebsweb account, I would have had great difficulty explaining this one away. Email, Twitter and Web address as attached.

Rebecca

[Leslie Langford]

Like most of you ladies here, I'm well aware of the risks associated with smartphones and the inter-connectedness of the Android/Google universe and Facebook in particular, and I go out of my way to cover my tracks. Fortunately, most of the tips, hints, and caveats posted here were known to me previously, and I had already implemented them. Still, one day I was caught by surprise when LinkedIn tried to connect my male self with "Leslie".

Needless to say, "Leslie" has never registered with LinkedIn, and doesn't have an account or a profile there. D*mned if I know how that happened, but somehow I suspect that Facebook had a hand in this.

It also bears repeating that whenever you take a picture with a smartphone, the built-in GPS functionality automatically registers the location where the picture was taken unless you specifically disable that particular feature.

[Bima]

Today, I discovered that my CD related Chrome browser bookmarks from my computer at home, had automatically been uploaded into my Chrome browser at work since I logged into Google+

On the more entertaining side, about 12-14 years ago, I visited my grandmother and I wanted to show some photos from a trip on my laptop. Started the laptop, and then a program to show the photos. The only problem was that the last photo I had shown before switching off the laptop was the photo that automatically loaded and popped up on full screen.

I had played around with Photo shop earlier that week, and produced a very realistic photo with my own face replacing a woman's face. So basically my grandmother saw a close up of my face, framed with long blond hair, on a slim neck, and I was wearing a yellow top with a pretty decent cleavage.

That was very embarrassing for a split second, but I quickly closed the lid, relied on that as an elderly her eyesight should be poor, and said that this was not the photo I wanted to show. After that, she never told me again that it was time for me to find someone and get married (she had said that a couple of time earlier). She probably assumed I was gay, which I'm not, but she never brought it up, or commented the photo, again. And her eyesight was probably better than I had hoped for.

Actually I just remembered that another embarrassing thing happened to me. I had my aunt and her husband over to my place, and I booted up my PC to show off Internet (in the mid 90's). I had forgot that I had place three ladies wearing fur coats as a background on my screen. How does a boy in his mid 20s explain that he has three hot ladies wearing fur coats as the default screen background? That's just plain weird, from their point of view. In reality, I always wished I was the one wearing any of their coats.

[Eryn]

...I wanted to test the trustworthiness of a friend prior to asking him to hold data backups for me. I asked him to store a floppy disk containing what he thought were business letters. It also contained a simple virus...

Hmm, is this something that a friend really does to a friend? Give them a piece of media infected with a virus as a "trustworthyness test?" With friends like this...

[Leslie Langford]

No, not so weird for a 20-something guy IF the hot ladies wearing those fur coats had nothing on underneath and were flashing the viewer....

Actually, Auntie and Uncle would likely have been more freaked out by this visual if they were staunch PETA supporters... ;)

[Bima]

You may be right Leslie, but the ladies were fully dressed, with kind of style and elegance to it. That should have worried the aunt and uncle :-)

(Btw, they were not PETA supporters, but I have very mixed feelings about fur coats myself. On one hand, I think it looks kind of hot and sexy, and on the other hand I know it is morally doubtful to kill animals, especially just for the fur. I feel confused :-)

/Bima

[MsVal]

Sorta off topic:
CASE STUDY: Several years ago, after a firm had beefed up its computer security, they hired a company to do penetration testing. If the security company could breach the firm's security they would get a contract to close the breach. The security company merely programmed about four dozen flash drives with a self loading program that, when automatically run would send the security company the time, computer id, and user id. They scattered the flash drives around the employee parking lot and waited for the results to come in. The very next morning the chief of the security company showed up at the firm's IT director's office with a list of two dozen compromised systems.

They got the job.

Best wishes
MsVal

[Megan Thomas]

With friends like this...

Friends get chosen very wisely but retained for a lifetime! :-)

[KellyTeddyBear]

The auto uploads, if im not mistaken are private view only until you share them, I take pics of my loads some times for a CYA thing with pre loaded trailers and loads that are stored outside but requires a full tarp, and they never show up unless I share but Idk if I have it set that way. Btw I love my galaxy s4.

[claireforever]

Also remember when you delete pictures they sometimes go into a trash bin and are still on your mac/pc etc ...its no wonder a crossdressers mind is like a detectives ..always thinking.

[Aly Cat]

Every time my phone asks me to sync something, I'm always like....NO! GO AWAY! I've got the galaxy S4 too and have all syncing turned off other than my email and contacts. I know all the ins and outs of the phone though because I work for Samsung specifically with their mobile division. I have bigger issues with Google mucking things up on my pc with G+. Invasive ba****ds!

[Helen_Highwater]

Even if you create differing identities if they're on the same machine "they" will know that as every device that connects to the internet has a unique identifier (MAC Address, it's this that gets the info from a search to appear on your machine etc). "They" can try to link the two accounts together because they're helpful like that.

[freeindress]

On desktops and laptops, the unique identifer (MAC address) can be avoided if you install VirtualBox or something similar, where you run several guest operating systems, each one with a browser targeting a single social media account. When a VM has been powered down, you can even change the MAC address of its network interface, but some operating systems remember it and will dislike the change, unless you boot them of an ISO image of a Live DVD.

[Jackie7]

Well here's a new one, to me at least, and kind of amusing too. I'm buying a technical book from Amazon on my realname account and I will get free shipping if I buy something else so I browse the brassieres and order a longline style I can't find locally.

Now here comes a pop-up window offering to show my new purchase to all my Facebook friends ... Which includes several of my grandchildren. The popup offered a choice to post or not post, and fortunately I was paying enough attention to kill it. But the way things are going the default could as easily have been the opposite, and closing the window would have auto-posted the photo. I don't really give a damn, but it is yet another example of how out of control all this social media stuff has become. Yikes I feel like an ancient curmudgeon typing that!

[Lucy Lou]

I usually delete my photos quite quickly anyway. I have an iphone and I had to de-activate the GPS and tracking of my photos. Secretly, I liked the idea that some one in the cyber world might have seen some of my pictures and thought, 'wow look at that guy, what a so and so' The thought of someone close is another thing altogether.

I hate the way companies decide things for me. I want to chose who looks at me dressed and that is the end of it. We all have to be very aware these days, I have been scammed a few times but I was quick to see through it. I didn't go to the police because they are really not interested if no one gets hurt.

What worries me is the thought that they are storing photos on a data base without my knowledge. If that is the case then there is nothing any of us can do about it.

Lucy Lou xxx

[freeindress]

If that is the case then there is nothing any of us can do about it.
Unless everybody avoids social networks and educates herself to host her photos at home or VPS then gives strong passwords to chosen friends.

[Diana81]

First night I fully dressed, I got my mobile phone robbed, with all the photos I had taken of myself. I'm still in fear that they will pop up in my life, anytime.

[Samantha_Smile]

I have the S4 too, rooted it on the 3rd day, and now I love it!
Anyhoo, I can see why the auto upload is useful, instant back up, no sync needed. It's very convenient for the majority of people.
But we are not in a majority. We're quite niche.
I always check privacy and permissions with any new software instal, its just the sensible thing to do knowing that google , facebook et al are trying to add convenience at the detriment of privacy.

I think this thread is more to do with user error than google policy :P

[BLUE ORCHID]

Hi Aeslyn, You really have to be careful with those new fangled gadgets.

[Eryn]

I always check privacy and permissions with any new software instal...

The problem is that with updates the option is always "Give us access to your data or you can't use this software." There doesn't seem to be any way to limit a particular application's access to your data to less than the app provider wants. Yes, one can always say "don't install it" but that means that I now have an old, possibly vulnerable, version of that app on my phone. I lose either way.

[Samantha_Smile]

The problem is that with updates the option is always "Give us access to your data or you can't use this software." There doesn't seem to be any way to limit a particular application's access to your data to less than the app provider wants. Yes, one can always say "don't install it" but that means that I now have an old, possibly vulnerable, version of that app on my phone. I lose either way.

I know what you're saying, but you're wrong.
When an app ask for permissions and it shows you that list, when it asks for your 'personal information' or your phone's location, it's usually for a reason as there will be some functionality that requires a component under a certain banner heading.
Did you know that everything that has keyboard input requests access to your whole keyboard?
Seems harmless?
Did you know that stock keyboards keep history?
Am I worried?
No.
The headings, if you actually read them and follow up on what they mean, are still very harmless. Malware is another issue, but generally with software, if something gets out that you didn't want 'out' then 99.9999999999% of the time, it will be down to user error.

Still not happy, root the device and download the root only software that grants you control over all permissions right from your handset.
Like I did. :D