Don't Use Google For Photo Backup!
Summary
TLDRThe 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
📷 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.
😕 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.
🤳 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡photo backups
💡end-to-end encryption
💡metadata
💡VPN
💡network attached storage (NAS)
💡Synology
💡Nextcloud
💡privacy risks
💡self-hosted options
💡auto back up
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
nbtv is entirely community supported
none of the products that we mentioned
in the videos are sponsors we don't have
show sponsors but if you'd like to
support our work and help us make free
educational content that teaches people
how to be more private online visit mtv.
media support we also have a book for
those just starting out called beginners
introduction to privacy which also
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
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