“There’s a new, easier and free way to store and organize your photos, but beware of the fine print,” Kathleen Burke reports for MarketWatch. “”

“Google rolled out Google Photos, its stand-alone photo storage app, last week. The app was originally run within Google+, but has been separated and developed with additional features. As with many new technologies, however, it comes with new risks to privacy and security,” Burke reports. “‘Convenience cuts both ways,’ said Christopher Budd, a global threat communications manager at Trend Micro. ‘Things that make it convenient to share what I want in ways that I want also make it convenient to share in ways I don’t want.’ … ‘When there’s not a money cost, there is more likely a cost in terms of the information that you’re sharing,’ he said.”

“Google’s privacy policy states that it collects information such as the type of device you use, websites you visit or your physical location,” Burke reports. “The policy says the information is used to protect and develop new services and customize advertising.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: A picture tells a thousand words. Tens of thousands of pictures? Of your entire family? Geotagged and facially-recognized? By the world’s foremost online advertising conglomerate? Sheesh!

That’s right, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

All that said: Google Photos is creepy and we’d never use it due to massive privacy concerns, but our tests have shown that it can automatically create interesting, fun, and coherent animations, collages and more with aplomb; in fact, Apple should be embarrassed. Hopefully, this spurs Apple to do a much better job with their own photo services. Start copying some of these features, Apple. We’d love to use them in a safe, secure environment where our photos aren’t being mined for marketing data.

SEE ALSO:

Apple CEO Tim Cook champions privacy, blasts ‘so-called free services’ – June 3, 2015
Passing on Google Photos for iOS: Read the fine print before you sign up for Google’s new Photos service – June 1, 2015
Why Apple’s Photos beats Google Photos, despite price and shortcomings – May 30, 2015
Is Apple is losing the photo wars? – May 29, 2015
How Google aims to delve deeper into users’ lives – May 29, 2015
Apple CEO Cook: Unlike some other companies, Apple won’t invade your right to privacy – March 2, 2015
Survey: People trust U.S. NSA more than Google – October 29, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for government, police – even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
U.S. NSA watching, tracking phone users with Google Maps – January 28, 2014
U.S. NSA secretly infiltrated Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say – October 30, 2013
Google has already inserted some U.S. NSA code into Android – July 10, 2013
Court rules NSA doesn’t have to reveal its semi-secret relationship with Google – May 22, 2013
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014