Google has put out a warning about a feature found on both iPhone and Android. It involves “estimated photo locations. This allows the location at which a photo was taken to be saved.
Google Photos is one of the apps that makes use of this feature. The app guesses where you are based on what can be seen in the photo, and comparing it to other photos. Pretty cool in itself, but some people don’t particularly like it anyway.
This is what Google sends an alert to your iPhone or Android phone for
Comparing that with other photos (aka “Location Searching”) is something Google doesn’t do these days. Still, the app on your iPhone or Android device keeps trying to attach a location to your photo. That is, if you don’t turn off the ‘estimate missing locations’ options.
If you do, Google Photos will no longer try to guess where the photo was taken. iPhone and Android devices do store location data more often, by the way.
Attaching a location to images, on the other hand, can be a problem for your security and privacy. It’s understandable that you have no appetite for that at all, so you’ll get a notification the next time you open your Google Photos app.
The notification will ask you if you want to keep the “estimated photo data” iPhone or Android device or not. If you do, the data will continue to show up and you can continue to use it (for example, Google Photos lets you search for photos based on where they were taken).
The notification you see when you open Google Photos. (Image: Google)
If you do decide to delete the data, it will also be gone forever. Whatever you choose, do so on your iPhone or Android device before May 1, 2023. If you haven’t made a choice by then, the data will still be deleted.
