Google has acknowledged the bug which occurred in november in your Google Photos service. This caused some users to get videos from strangers by requesting to export data from Photos. A bug that some users have already been warned about, but how can you avoid these issues in the future.
Google Photos and the problems of its Takeout tool
So that you are up to date, Takeout is the Google Photos tool that allows you to create a backup of your data stored in the service. This makes it easy to download your photos and videos in case you want to take them to another service or simply have a copy in a local location.
Whoa, what? @googlephotos? pic.twitter.com/2cZsABz1xb
— Jon Oberheide (@jonoberheide) February 4, 2020
Well, during the November 21 and 25, users who requested a backup could have received videos from other users in them. In other words, a failure in the export could have made some of your videos available to strangers. The very statement by a Google spokesperson:
We are notifying our users of a bug that may have affected those who used Google Takeout to export their content from Google Photos between November 21 and 25. These users may have received an incomplete file or videos (not photos), which were not theirs. We have fixed the underlying issue and have done a deep scan to prevent this from happening again. We are very sorry for any inconveniences."
The problem has already been solved, but still it is uncomfortable to think that all this could happen again. If the users who received their backup copy follow the instructions and delete the content, there will be no problem. What's more, in principle there should be no problem as long as the content is not compromised and you act in good faith. Although no one would be amused to think that their photos and videos could be in the possession of others without knowing it.
How to avoid Google Photos problems in the future
"The best thing is to keep the money in the mattress at home." That phrase that you have surely heard on some occasion may be the key to everything for many in the end. If you are one of those who distrust any cloud service, regardless of the manufacturer, the option you have is store everything locally or within your own cloud.
Because an unintentional error in the code can cause problems like this one in Google Photos. So, in the case of not wanting to use Google Photos and other gallery options and photo and video storage online, what options do you have? Well, the first one is have everything on local hard drives. But if you want to be able to access your photos from any location and via the Internet, the best solution is to use a NAS.
Devices such as those from Synology, QNAP or ASUSTOR offer multimedia applications capable of manage your photos and videos as an online gallery. The only thing you have to do is activate the application and copy all the content in the folder that you decide to use to store them. If by any chance you have a file structure already generated you can transfer it directly.
These NAS online galleries are in charge of indexing all the content and even generating thumbnails so that the preview of the files is much faster when you connect remotely. Then, depending on each of these solutions, you will have more or fewer options.
They are not as optimal as Google Photos, Amazon Photos or iCloud Photos, it will depend on what you need, but if you want to avoid these possible problems they are, a priori, the most effective option.