Google Photos

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The Google Photos Logo as of 2021

Google Photos is a photo and video storage and sharing service developed by Google. Google Photos was released in May 2015 as it separated from Google’s former social network, Google+.[1] Google says it designed Google Photos with the intent of creating a platform that allows people to store and easily access all of their pictures and videos from any device.[2]

After its release, the size of Google Photos's user base skyrocketed to 200 million after one year, 500 million after two years, and surpassed 1 billion after only four years.[3] As of 2020, Google reports that about 28 billion photos and videos are uploaded every week and that the service is home to more than 4 trillion photos to date.[4]

Back in 2016, Google Photos heavily advertised its capability to free up space on users' devices, allowing more photos to be taken.[5][6] But the service now offers a large variety of other features.

Features

Google Photos has apps for Android and iOS, in addition to a website.[7] Photos and videos can be uploaded and accessed via any of these platforms.[8]

The service also organizes photos and videos by identifying any number of features present in the photo such as lakes, night, birthday, and much more.[7] It is also capable of organizing photos by the faces of people and pets in them, even as the faces age.[8][7] Users can manually fix or remove incorrect labels.[8]

Google Photos also can group photos and videos by location.[8] It can determine a photo's location either by its embedded geotagging data, or by analyzing the photo for major landmarks (such as the Eiffel Tower).[8]

Additionally, the service includes a native photo and video editing software that can be used on any platform.[9]

Google Photos offers a variety of ways to make sharing photos and videos easy and simple. One method that Google Photos offers is generating web links that both users and non-users can access.[8] Google Photos also allows users to share albums with someone directly via their Google account.[10]

A heat map feature that displays the concentration of photos in the library as a function of location was added in 2020.[11]

Storage

A breakdown of Google's sources of revenue from 2017 to 2020.[12]

Photos and videos are each uploaded to Google Photos in one of three ways: "original quality", "high quality", or "express".[13] Uploads in "original quality" are stored in the same resolution at which they were taken, and anything uploaded at this quality uses part of the associated Google account’s 15GB of storage that is used across all Google products (including Gmail, Google Drive, etc.).[13] Meanwhile, photos and videos uploaded at "high quality" have their resolution downgraded to 16 megapixels and 1080p, respectively.[13] Finally, "express" uploads are compressed to 3 megapixels for photos and 480p for videos.[13] The free tier of Google Photos allows users to upload unlimited photos and videos in resolutions up to "high quality."[13]

In November 2020, Google announced that, starting June 1, 2021, Google Photos will no longer offer free unlimited storage at "express" or "high quality", and that users will have to pay to continue to upload after all 15GB of their account storage is used.[14] This is being done in an effort to increase the number of Google One subscriptions and reduce Google's reliance on ad-based revenue.[12]

After all 15GB of account storage have been used, in order to be able to continue to upload "high quality" images to Google Photos, users will either have to maintain a Google One subscription or upload from a Google Pixel 5 device or earlier.[15][13] Future Pixel devices will be unable to upload in "high quality" for free.[16]

Motivations

A meal has been incorrectly labeled as a "bike" by Google's automatic recognition algorithms.

There is much speculation as to why Google released this product in the first place. Some speculate that Google released this product in the interest of getting a foothold in the landscape of personal data in the form of visual imagery.[17] While some say Google intended this product as a method of outsourcing work to train their visual recognition algorithms as users sort and correct labels on their own photos: the app is always asking the user to improve the app’s recognition results by manually verifying (or rejecting) its proposed tags.[18] On the right is an example of a recognition gone wrong.

Ethical Implications

Google Photos information ports into Google Maps in conjunction with real-time location information to create an extremely precise summary of this user’s day.

Security

An obvious concern for a product like Google Photos is user privacy and the security of private photos and videos from others, such as other individuals, third party institutions, and even the government.[19] These concerns are substantiated by occurrences like Google accidentally sending users’ private videos to strangers in November 2019.[20] To alleviate these concerns, Google continuously works to improve its security infrastructure to ensure that the only ones that can see an account’s photos is the owner of the account and those that the owner has deliberately shared their photos with.[21]

Computer Vision

Google Photos automatically runs every photo and video through visual recognition algorithms to identify objects and places.[22] And once "face grouping" is turned on by the user, it will also start to group together photos of individual people and pets.[23] Hence, there is cause for concern about Google using the information embedded in the photos (including, but not limited to hobbies, family members, pets, locations information, and more) and selling it to third parties, or using it to display more relevant advertisements.[24] To alleviate these concerns, Google ensures users that "face groups and labels in your account are only visible to you."[23]

Geotagging (Location Information)

Most cameras nowadays are equipped with geotagging technology that embeds location information into every photo and video taken. If a user allows Google to keep track of their location history under “Your Timeline” in Google Maps, Google Photos compiles this location information to allow users to search their gallery by location (e.g. “Beach”, or by particular cities), and even review past trips minute-by-minute in the Google Maps application.[8][25]

Even without geotags, Google Photos is capable of intuiting a photo’s location by analyzing for major landmarks.[8] As a result, concerns have been raised about how this location information is used and if it is secure.[26]

Google is upfront that it uses this location information to show users more relevant advertisements.[27] Still, to accommodate these concerns, Google Photos gives its users the capability to turn off location history, remove location information from already existing photos, choose whether or not to share a photo's location when shared, and promises that location information is never shared with advertisers.[28][27]






References

  1. ↑ Spradlin, L. (2015, May 24). "An Exclusive Early Look At The New Google Photos App". Android Police. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  2. ↑ Amateur Photographer. (2015, June 2). "Google Photos Service Raises Privacy Concerns". Amateur Photographer. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  3. ↑ Porter, J. (2019, July 24). "Google Photos passes the 1 billion users mark". The Verge. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  4. ↑ Ben-Yair, S. (2020, November 11). "Updating Google Photos' storage policy to build for the future". Google | The Keyword. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  5. ↑ Google. (2016, August 8). "Google Photos - Never run out of storage on your phone again...". Facebook Watch. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  6. ↑ Google. (2016, August 8). "Google Photos". Facebook Watch. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Kastrenakes, J. (2015, May 28). "Google announces unlimited picture and video storage with new Photos app". The Verge. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Mossberg, W. (2015, June 2). "The New Google Photos: Free at Last, and Very Smart". Vox. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  9. ↑ Lowensohn, J. (2015, May 28). "Hands-on with Google's new Photos service". The Verge. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  10. ↑ Mathur, S. (2020, May 19). "New controls for how you share albums in Google Photos". Google | The Keyword. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  11. ↑ Newton, C. (2020, June 25). "Google Photos gets a map view as part of a big new redesign". The Verge. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Newman, J. (2020, November 28). "The end of unlimited Google Photos storage is part of a bigger pivot". Fast Company. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 Google. (2021). "Choose the upload size of your photos & videos". Google Photos Help. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  14. ↑ Bohn, D. (2020, November 11). "Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage on June 1st, 2021". The Verge. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  15. ↑ Google. (2021). "Storage changes for Google Photos". Google Photos Help. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  16. ↑ Coberly, C. (2020, November 12). "Future Pixel phone owners may not retain unlimited Google Photos storage access". TechSpot. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  17. ↑ Lomas, N. (2015, June 1). "Google Photos Reminder: Smile, It's Free - You're The Product!". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  18. ↑ Perrigo, M. (2020, November 9). "Google Photos wants you to answer questions to help improve its image recognition capabilities". Chrome Unboxed. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  19. ↑ Hill, S. (2015, June 16). "Google Photos: Should you be worried about privacy?". Android Authority. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  20. ↑ Warren, T. (2020, February 4). "Google admits it sent private videos in Google Photos to strangers". The Verge. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  21. ↑ Google. (2021). "Google Photos Safety & Privacy Features". Google Safety Center. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  22. ↑ Google. (2021). "Get started with Google Photos". Google Photos Help. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Google. (2021). "Search by people, things & places in your photos". Google Photos Help. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  24. ↑ Luckerson, V. (2017, May 25). "Why Google Is Suddenly Obsessed With Your Photos". The Ringer. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  25. ↑ Bonifacic, I. (2020, December 16). "Google Photos lets you relive a day through your Maps timeline". Engadget. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  26. ↑ Komando, K. (2021, January 11). "Hidden map on your phone shows everywhere you’ve been and the photos you took there". USA Today. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Google. (2021). "How Google uses location information". Privacy & Terms. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  28. ↑ Google. (2021). "Understand, find and edit your photos' locations". Google Photos Help. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
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