Google+ uploads photos and video without consent

[nutmac]

About a couple of months ago, Google added Instant Upload to Google+ iPhone app. Unbeknownst to me, this feature defaults to ON and it automatically uploads all photos and videos on my iPhone (supposedly only photos newer than when this feature rolled out).

That seems like a major violation of privacy. Google claims photos are stored in a private place, but it never asked for permission and I may not want the app to suck up battery life nor my WiFi connection for this operation.

Worse, it is very time consuming to delete all my photos and video from Google+ website.

 

[Apple OC]

Worse, it is very time consuming to delete all my photos and video from Google+ website.

why delete them?... Google probably kept copies for themselves anyhow

 

[nutmac]

I've disabled the feature and guess what? It is still uploading picture no matter what. Deleting the app.

 

[kicko]

I personally like the feature to back up photos and vids, but you can disable it. Mine are all uploaded to a private folder, so even if G+ has them they are not being shared publicly.

 

[GoCubsGo]

It was like that on my Droid. Suddenly there were photos I took all over my Google+ account. The app was deleted and the suspended my G+ account because I refused to list my entire name.

 

[psonice]

That seems like a major violation of privacy.

They're an advertising company that makes money by harvesting your personal details and using whatever they can learn about you to try and sell you stuff. Of course their default setting is going to be "send everything imaginable to google". Most likely they've already cross-referenced it all against your email, address book, GPS data (from google maps and the GPS data in your photos), web search and whatever else to build up a pretty good profile of who you are, who you know, where you've been and what you did there.

Seriously, if you're concerned about privacy *do not* sign up for lots of services with an advertising company Personally I've shut down most of my google accounts recently, because their new privacy policy goes way, way too far for my liking.