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mcc
@mcclure111
Replying to
@mcclure111
So here's the thing. I do not consent to Google uploading my photos or microphone recordings to their servers. *Ever*. Under *any circumstances* (attaching files to a message on a Google service, like Hangouts, is the obvious, only exception).
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Daniel Micay
@DanielMicay
Replying to @mcclure111
Lens has a mix of offline and online features but it's primarily an online service. It does have the ability to do OCR and translations without their service, at least if you set it up that way. There's local OCR without involving Lens. Try selecting text in recent apps instead.
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mcc
@mcclure111
Google Photos makes it consistently *really* hard to tell if they're uploading things behind your back or not. For example, creating an album uploads all the photos, which came as a surprise to me the first time I made one.
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mcc
@mcclure111
Replying to @mcclure111
Oh incidentally: Here's EXACTLY what happened. *Click "add photo to new album"* *It says, "Uploading"* *I say, "Cancel"* *IT UPLOADS ANYWAY*
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mcc
@mcclure111
What about Lens? It's impossible to tell. If you look in settings, there's no off switch, but it says activity is saved "if you have Web and App Activity" turned on. What is that? It's not on this screen. There is a "Learn More" link which says absolutely nothing relevant.
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mcc
@mcclure111
This is *really* concerning to me because it's literally impossible to *not* use Google Lens. If I don't like the album feature—fine, I won't create albums. But Lens is a large button in a place you're likely to hit it by accident often. I discovered it by accidentally tapping it
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mcc
@mcclure111
If I look in my Google Activity, I find many cryptic entries under "Searched with Google Lens" — seemingly one for every time I pressed the button today, *as well as one for yesterday, when I hadn't realized I'd pressed it*. But *what* was uploaded? It doesn't say. No way to ask.
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mcc
@mcclure111
Google seems to think the important question is what data is *retained*. They have elaborate written policies about what is done with retained data & detailed logs of retained data. Google considers information *transmitted*, but not retained, unimportant. I disagree completely.
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Daniel Micay
@DanielMicay
Replying to
@mcclure111
F-Droid is an alternative to the Play Store with their own repository of open source apps. Simple Gallery Pro is open source but the Play Store variant is a paid app replacing the open source editor for a proprietary one. It's actually a GPL violation but they don't understand.
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