It’s fair to say that cloud storage systems aren’t perfected quite yet. Storing personal files on a distant server, like that of Google Photos, comes with its flaws. Today, Google sent notices to some of its Google Photos users, telling them that ‘some of the videos’ stored in the service may have been exported to random users’ archives.
If you used Google’s “Download your data” service in the app between 21 November and 25 November 2019, you may find your data export isn’t complete. You may also find some random peoples’ video files on your device. Google is letting people know via email rn, so if you’re affected you’ll hear from them sometime today.
*Hands-over-eyes monkey emoji*
All this happened due to a technical issue on Google’s side, making it possible for video files to be exported to completely unrelated accounts. The company has assured that everything is fine now, and that users’ files are perfectly safe. It has issued a recommendation to delete prior exports and perform a new export, just to be safe and stuff.
“The company emphasised that the bug only affected users of Google Takeouts, a download-your-data tool, and not users of Google Photos more broadly. It did not give specific numbers on how many users were affected but said it was less than 0.01% of Google Photos users,” the Guardian reports.
To be safe, head to your Google Photos account now and perform a new expert on your files (especially if you have videos). Be safe out there Android users.
Sauce: The Guardian
