Don't Use Google For Photo Backup!

Summary

The video discusses the privacy implications of photo backups on smartphones. It explores the default Apple and Android options, finding they provide little privacy. Better options are outlined, like Proton Drive for encrypted cloud backups, Synology NAS devices for local network backups, and self-hosted Nextcloud for private photo storage. Tips are provided for configuring phones and VPNs to enable local backups. The video aims to make private photo backups easy, avoiding reliance on big tech companies, so cherished memories can be preserved with the privacy they deserve.

Takeaways

• 😀 Our precious memories are kept digitally on phones, rarely printed
• 😟 Phones can break and we can lose photos if not backed up
• 😠 iCloud and Android backups are not private by default
• 😡 Apple and Google can access your private photos in backups
• 😃 Enable encryption in iCloud for more privacy
• 😉 Local network backups to a NAS provide more privacy
• 🌟 Synology Photos app makes NAS backup easy
• 🔒 Nextcloud provides private self-hosted file storage
• ✨ Auto upload in Nextcloud app backs up photos automatically
• 💡 Convenience doesn't have to come at the expense of privacy

Q & A

What are the built-in iPhone photo backup options?

The built-in iPhone photo backup option is iCloud. Photos uploaded to iCloud are not end-to-end encrypted by default unless you enable Advanced Data Protection.

What metadata can Apple access even if iCloud encryption is enabled?

Even with encryption enabled, Apple can still access metadata like file type, size, usage data like timestamps, number of times a photo was viewed, whether it was pinned or marked as a favorite, etc.

What are the issues with Android's default Google Drive backups?

Android by default backs everything up to Google Drive, which is not end-to-end encrypted. This means Google has the keys to decrypt the data and can access your private photos.

What backup options does GrapheneOS provide?

GrapheneOS provides DAVx5 and Nextcloud as backup options, which use the WebDAV protocol to send encrypted files to a location you specify. However, these are more suited for full device backups rather than just photos.

How does the Proton Drive solution for iPhone photo backups work?

The Proton Drive app has a photos sync option that automatically backs up your photos and videos to your private end-to-end encrypted Proton Drive storage. Only you can access the files.

Why can't a phone directly access a NAS?

A NAS is on your home local network, separated from the internet by a firewall router. So a phone has to connect to the router to access the NAS rather than connecting directly.

How does the Synology NAS solution work?

You install the Synology Photos app on your phone, configure it to connect to your NAS IP address, username and password. It then backs up photos automatically. The NAS organizes photos by date taken.

What permissions are needed to get Nextcloud photo backups working?

The Nextcloud app needs full storage access permission. You may also need to manually enable access to photos and videos in the app permissions settings.

How does the Nextcloud app provide backup functionality?

The Nextcloud app has an auto upload feature that can continuously back up your camera photos and videos folder in the background. It also mounts the Nextcloud storage as a remote drive.

What are some alternatives people used before modern cloud backups existed?

Before services like Google Drive, people did manual backups to local drives, floppy disks, CDs, etc. Convenience often comes at the cost of privacy, but privacy tech is getting more convenient too.

Outlines

00:00

📷 How iPhone Backups Work

This paragraph discusses how iPhones handle photo backups using iCloud. It explains that end-to-end encryption was recently added to iCloud Photos, but it is not enabled by default. Even with encryption, metadata remains visible to Apple. Data collection also occurs through telemetry.

05:01

😕 Android Backups Are Not Private

This paragraph looks at Android photo backups. They automatically back up to Google Drive, which does not use end-to-end encryption. This means Google can access the data. Some privacy-focused options like GrapheneOS are also examined, but were not ideal for simple photo backups.

10:03

🤳 3 Private Photo Backup Options

This paragraph introduces 3 private photo backup solutions that were tested. The first option is using the Proton Drive mobile app, which provides end-to-end encrypted cloud storage. The second uses a Synology NAS device on the home network. The third uses Nextcloud self-hosted on a Raspberry Pi.

Keywords

💡photo backups

The main theme of the video is securing private photo backups. The video discusses the privacy risks with common phone backup options to cloud services, and explores more private alternatives like local network attached storage and self-hosted options.

💡end-to-end encryption

This refers to encrypting data such that only the end user can decrypt it, preventing even the service provider from accessing the content. The video says iCloud and Proton Drive offer end-to-end encrypted photo backups.

💡metadata

Even with end-to-end encryption, metadata about photos may still be visible to the service provider, like timestamps and usage data. The video says Apple collects a lot of metadata from iCloud users.

💡VPN

To connect the phone to a local network attached storage device, the video explains that the VPN should allow local network connections to bypass the VPN tunnel.

💡network attached storage (NAS)

The video explores using a NAS device on the local home network as a private place to back up phone photos.

💡Synology

A popular NAS product that's highlighted as an option for backing up photos through the Synology Photos app.

💡Nextcloud

An open source self-hosted file hosting system that can be installed on a home server, which the video uses to demonstrate auto uploading photos from phone.

💡privacy risks

The video aims to educate viewers on the privacy risks of common phone backup options to cloud services, and provide more private alternatives.

💡self-hosted options

Besides end-to-end encrypted cloud services like Proton Drive, the video focuses on self-hosted backup solutions like NAS devices and Nextcloud for more control.

💡auto back up

The video emphasizes setting up automatic/background backups for photos instead of relying on manual backups.

Highlights

iOS and Android photo backups are not end-to-end encrypted by default

Apple collects a lot of user data and often bypasses VPNs

Android backups to Google Drive are not end-to-end encrypted

GrapheneOS backup options are for full device backups, not just photos

Proton Drive has an option to easily sync photos with end-to-end encryption

Self-hosting backups at home provides more privacy and control

NAS provides network attached storage on your home network

Synology NAS has great apps like Synology Photos

Configure VPN to allow local network connections to NAS

Synology Photos app can auto back up phone photos to NAS

Nextcloud provides private self-hosted file storage

Nextcloud app handles auto upload of photos

Nextcloud mounts as remote drive on phone

No single perfect backup solution for everyone

New private and convenient technologies continue emerging

Transcripts

these days our precious memories are all

kept on our smartphones we rarely have

prints developed anymore and instead our

photos stay in digital form often never

leaving our device unfortunately phones

break and sometimes we lose them so it's

essential to make sure that we regularly

back up all of these important moments

IOS and Android both have built-in

options for backing up your photos to

the cloud but who else gets access to

these private photos when we do so in

this video we'll look at just how

private these options actually are we'll

also explore more private photo backup

Solutions and we'll walk you through how

to set each one up to happen

automatically so that you never have to

think about backups again there are some

really Simple Solutions that don't

require any technical skill hopefully

after watching this video you'll never

again have to worry about losing your

photos let's start with how iPhones

handle photo backups they're built-in

phone backup option is iCloud and at the

end of 2022 Apple added end to-end

encryption to certain aspects of iCloud

including photos where only the user can

decrypt their data this is considered

the gold standard for privacy because it

ensures that nobody else not even the

service provider can access the content

of the data but there's a big caveat end

to end encryption isn't turned on by

default for your iCloud backups so if

you're just happily uploading your

photos to iCloud and never turned on

what's called Advanced Data protection

then all of your private photos are

visible to Apple we recently put out a

video explaining how to enable enter and

encryption on iCloud if you turn this on

iCloud isn't a terrible way to back up

your photos if you're in the Apple

ecosystem but keep in mind that whether

you turn on the encryption or not a huge

amount of your files metadata is still

visible to Apple and it could be more

revealing Than People realize it

includes things like file type file size

how many times a photo has been viewed

whether a file was pinned or marked as a

favorite usage data such as timestamps

of when the file is created or last

modified on top of that Apple collects a

large amount of data from users in

general through things like Telemetry

and they often bypass your VPN for this

collection we've covered this in

previous videos for these reasons some

people might prefer to opt out of the

Apple ecosystem as much as possible

we'll go over alternatives in a moment

now let's look at Android's photo

backups they're pretty terrible for

privacy because Android is developed by

Google they've got it set up to just

back everything up to Google Drive if

you go into a standard Android phone and

go to settings and then system and then

backup you'll see that the backup

options are set to Google one and Google

one backups which also includes things

like apps contacts Calender and

documents are not endtoend encrypted

Google holds the keys for decryption

which which means Google can access your

data our private photos are sensitive so

we should definitely be using endtoend

encryption when storing them that rolls

out Google one as an option and again

we'll get to Solutions in a bit finally

let's see what options graphine OS has

for backups this is a privacy focused

operating system so we can presume that

the backup options are privacy focused

also and yep it was confirmed when we

clicked backup you first get a seed that

you need to write down so that you can

decrypt your backup then you'll see two

possible backup options DAV X5 and

nextcloud these are both clients on the

phone that use something called the

webdav protocol to send files wherever

you point them we tested both clients

and pointed each to our local server to

store the backup but when each backup

process was finished all we saw on the

server were a lot of encrypted files

that we couldn't access so we had no

idea whether our photo backup was

actually successful this is because

these graphing OS options are really for

full phone backups in case you ever want

to restore your files on your device or

a new device so we can't actually

confirm if this file backup worked until

we go through this restore process we'll

look at full phone backups in another

video but for this video these options

weren't really what we were looking for

we wanted a backup option that would

allow us to see and interact with our

photos while storing them privately so

now let's go into the solutions that we

found and liked we have three options

for you the first is super easy and the

other two are intermediate level that

give you a little more control we'll

start with the easy option which is the

Proton Drive app we've talked about

Proton Drive in previous videos as a

great cloud storage option because it's

end to-end encrypted but one really cool

thing about it is that the phone app has

an option specifically for syncing

photos download and install the app open

it up and follow the prompts to log into

your account you'll see a button at the

bottom center that says photos click

that that and you'll see a welcome

screen and some permission checks we

want the app to be able to back up our

photos so we'll want to Grant those

permissions that it asks for and once

you do that all your photos and videos

from your phone will start syncing to

your private endtoend encrypted Cloud

folder the best part you're the only one

who can see them even proton itself

can't see them as you take new photos

they will automatically get synced to

your drive and from there you can view

them download them and create links to

share with others they're no longer

trapped in just your phone it's super

simple and you can create a free account

that gives you 5 gab of free storage to

begin with but maybe you don't want your

photo stored in the cloud or to touch

the internet at all so we have a couple

more options for you where you self host

your photo backups at home this is a

great choice for privacy because your

digital files are in your hands and your

control for our first option you'll

store your backups on something called a

Nas which stands for network attached

storage it's basically a computer that

you have in your home that has hard

drives on it and you can use it to store

things ideally it has a lot of this

space and it's where you go to send

files that you want to keep for the long

term this Nas backup option is a little

more tricky to set up because your phone

generally won't connect directly with

the nas instead your Nas is connected to

your local network let me explain in

your home you have your home Wi-Fi it's

a local network where all your personal

devices like your phone computer and iot

devices live then you have the public

internet and separating the two you'll

have a modem firewall router device that

serves as the gateway to and from that

public internet your local network by

default isn't directly accessible from

the outside internet this is an

important security feature your mem's

firewall acts as a barrier stopping

incoming connections and preventing

unauthorized access to your personal

devices now the way your devices in your

local network can talk talk to each

other is via the router which acts as

the central hub for your devices so your

phone your computers and everything else

all connect to that router and your Nas

connects to your router too so instead

of plugging your phone into your Nas you

actually just connect both devices to

your local network because the Nas is in

your local network and protected by your

firewall you won't be able to access

anything on the NAS from the outside

internet you'll only be able to access

it when you're at home

it is possible to expose Your Nest to

the Internet so that you can back up

your stuff while on the go but be

careful of this because if you do start

opening ports up to the internet then

you're not the only one who can get to

it anymore so it's a much safer practice

to keep your nest only accessible from

within your local network the nas option

we're going to explore is a super

popular product called sonology what

sets it apart from other Nas devices is

its usability and wide variety of apps

that could be installed on it let's

presume that you have your syy Nas set

up we'll explore Synology Nas setups in

another video first step is to go to the

package Center search for photos and

then install Synology photos then you'll

either need to configure a user or

create a new user we're going to create

a new one go to control panel user and

group and select create give it a name

and a password and keep all the other

settings as default one thing we're

going to tweak is the application

permission you want to enable this user

to be able to use sonology photos when

you're done save out to open sonology

photos go back to the package Center

search for sonology photos and click

open this launches a new tab for photos

log in with your new user and you'll see

an empty place for your photos to be

stored now go to your phone install the

sonology photos app from your app store

of choice the idea is to be able to

connect your phone to your sonology but

remember you have to be on the same

local network to do so this is going to

be an issue if you have a VPN always

running on the phone the way a VPN is

usually configured is it sends all

traffic through the VPN tunnel out to

the internet but your Nas isn't on the

Internet it's in your local network at

home so if your phone sends all traffic

to the Internet it's not going to be

able to come back into your home what we

need to do is configure the VPN to allow

a connection to your local Nas to do

that go into your VPN settings and turn

on allow local connections or land

connection

or you might see another option like

allow split tunneling or exclude an IP

address from the VPN any of these will

do then you want to see if you have a

kill switch turned on on your VPN on

protonvpn either click on the kill

switch or if you're on graphine or

Android go to the phone settings and

then network and internet and click on

the VPN you'll see the second option

says block connections without VPN turn

this off to allow our local land

connections to skip the VPN and go to

the nas be cautious here because

allowing the traffic to bypass the VPN

tunnel does introduce new security risks

for instance your phone is going to try

to get to your nest in every Network it

connects to the coffee shop Wi-Fi your

friend's house work and home it doesn't

know which network is your home and it

will just try anywhere it goes and

typically this isn't a problem but it's

something to be aware of now that we

have these two settings changed let's go

back to our sonology app on the phone

you'll be ask for the IP of your

sonology your username and password

enter those and it'll connect to your

Nas it will ask for permissions and

since we want to back up our images and

photos you'll want to give it permission

to see that stuff you'll be asked if you

want to back up new photos or old photos

pick one and then hit done your photos

on your phone will automatically start

backing up to your Synology and as you

take new photos they'll also

automatically back up to your Nas

whenever you're connected now in your

sonology interface refresh the screen

and you'll start to see images show up

it'll create this directory structure

based on the dates that the photos were

taken this is a great solution and it

keeps everything organized safe and

private the final solution we're going

to look at is nextcloud next cloud is a

file hosting system that you can use

instead of Dropbox or Google Drive it's

open source and what makes it private is

that it's self-hosted you can install it

on just about any computer you have at

home and it'll act as your file storage

system to test out this solution we

decided to install nextcloud on a

Raspberry Pi I'm not going to walk you

through the process of installing

nextcloud we might go over that in

another video in this video we'll

presume that you've already gone through

the steps of setting up a next Cloud

Server and we'll just focus on the photo

backup options download the next Cloud

app when you open it it will ask you for

your next Cloud Server IP and again you

won't be able to connect unless you have

your VPN configured to allow local land

connections but once you get logged in

and authenticated it'll start asking you

for permissions including full storage

access since this is a storage backup

solution it makes sense to give it this

permission we actually had to go one

step further and in system settings apps

and the nextcloud app we selected

permissions and enabled access to the

photos and videos there now go back to

the nextcloud app and see the files on

the nextcloud server from here open the

menu and click settings you'll see a

button that says auto upload this grabs

your photos some videos folder by

default but you can add any folder you

want from your phone to get it auto

uploaded then you click the little Cloud

to make it turn blue when you do this

for the first time it will give you a

warning about backing up on battery

power and then ask for permission to run

this app in the background once you

click allow it will start Auto uploading

your files to your next Cloud device now

if we go over to our nextcloud server

and look at the images folder we can see

right away the pictures from our phone

are now visible here what's nice about

the nextcloud app is that it mounts as a

remote drive on your phone so you could

go into your files of your phone and

copy and paste and move things around

between your nextcloud server and your

phone that's it those are three ways to

back up your photos privately easily and

automatically of course there's not a

single solution that works best for

everyone and if you know of other great

Solutions let us know in the comments if

you're already using Google drive to

back up your photos then I personally

think Proton Drive is a great

alternative ative giving you most of the

features of Google photos but with much

more privacy digital memories have

become a central part of our Lives I am

really excited that you are treating

them with the Privacy that they deserve

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supports our show we appreciate all of

you for helping us do what we do so I

hear people say all the time how hard it

is to be private but keep in mind that

Google Drive has only existed for a

little over a decade so what did people

do before Google Drive was a thing well

they' back up everything manually they'

use local drives they use floppy discs

and this has been the way that we've

done it for a really long time for

decades in fact it's just that in recent

years there are companies that have made

it a lot easier now convenience is great

but we have to remember that it does

sometimes come at privacy's expense but

luckily privacy is getting a lot more

convenient too so my tip is just keep a

lookout as new technologies are

developed that can give us more privacy

and is also simple and convenient to use

opt for those things instead