I am trying to finally move from entirely depending on Google Photos to a proper backup strategy. I have my photos and videos downloaded from Google which are a mess right now but as long they’re with me I am fine, at least for now.

So, what I have planned is 3 way backup with Mega Drive-Google Photos- Local storage. Local storage, I will start off with storing on a pendrive and my router has a usb port so will make use of it for time being.

I know my way of doing things is noobish for a piracy community (and in general too, I am kinda embarrassed as well sharing this “strategy” of mine). Hence I’m asking for suggestions to improve my strategy. Yeah, in the future I will move to HDDs and NAS but for time being I am starting out this way.

So how do you manage your personal media? Are there any noob-friendly tools/techniques you know which drastically improve my strategy?

  • 🤘🐺🤘English
    71·
    1 year ago

    Lack of privacy is a huge reason. If you’re OK with Google scanning all of your photos to sell you adds and build their AI then it’s a fine option.

    • Octopus1348@lemy.lolEnglish
      14·
      1 year ago

      They definitely scan your photos, but definitely not to personalize ads.

      Also, you can easily turn off ad personalization in your Google account.

      As for building their AI system, this is also true but it’s opt-in. It allows your photos to be shown to people using Crowdsource to help improve Google AI.

      • 🤘🐺🤘English
        41·
        1 year ago

        Here’s a relevant quote from their privacy policy:

        We provide personal information to our affiliates and other trusted businesses or persons to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. For example, we use service providers to help operate our data centers, deliver our products and services, improve our internal business processes, and offer additional support to customers and users.

        If you’re OK with Google using your personal information to sell you adds or with then selling your personal information directly, then it’s a fine option.

        Again, i’s a privacy issue. Some people are OK with giving up privacy for convenience, and that’s fine.

        • Octopus1348@lemy.lolEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          That does not say that “personal information” refers to things you store privately on Google services. You can still turn off ad personalization anyway.

          Here is a quote from Google Safety Center’s ads and data section:

          We never use the content you create and store in apps like Drive, Gmail, and Photos for ads purposes.

          • 🤘🐺🤘English
            2·
            1 year ago

            If you trust them, which it seems like you do, to not sell your information for advertising purposes then maybe thats true.

            They’re still sharing your personal information with others. Maybe you trust Google to not use the information stored in your drive for ads or to sell you shit but do you then also implicitly trust every corporation that that give that data to? To you then also trust those companies to always handle and treat your personal information with the respect it deserves for all time?

            • Octopus1348@lemy.lolEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              I kinda trust them, I don’t have any important files on Drive, but I have all my photos on Google Photos, which especially with these Drive files lost news, is not a good idea. I think I will transition to Immich which I already have set up, so I, and only I have control over my data, and it’s also free for 5x as more storage (because of an 1TB external hard drive)