Unintentional Privacy Breach at Google: User's Private Videos Inadvertently Forwarded to Unknown Recipients
In a recent incident, Google has acknowledged that some users of its service, Google Photos, owned by Alphabet, may have unintentionally shared their private videos with strangers. The error occurred between November 21 and November 25, 2019.
The issue was first brought to light on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, when Jon Oberheide, a Twitter user, shared a screenshot of an apology email from Google Photos. The email, sent to affected users, expressed Google's sincere apologies for the incident and advised users to delete any prior attempts of exporting their data and to try exporting it again.
The incident affected less than 0.01 percent of people who exported data during the specified time period. It was reported that the affected users downloaded videos that were not their own through Google Takeout. The private videos that were shared were uploaded by strangers on Google Photos.
Google is working diligently to identify and notify users who may have been affected by this bug. They are also striving to fix the underlying problem that led to the accidental sharing of private videos.
The error at Google that led to the private videos being sent to strangers was caused by shortcomings in the design and development process, as identified by the Irish Data Protection Commission investigating a similar breach at Meta. Such breaches generally result from faults in how data handling systems are conceived and implemented, rather than specific individual actions.
Google Photos encourages its users to regularly review their privacy settings and to report any suspicious activities to ensure the protection of their data. The company remains committed to maintaining the privacy and security of its users' data.
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