Google on Tuesday confirmed that some people recently received private videos from strangers that were uploaded to Google Photos.
A new report from 9to5Google explains that individuals who used Google Takeout to export content from Google Photos stash may have been affected by a “bug” that sent them either an incomplete archive or a complete stranger’s videos.
“We are notifying people about a bug that may have affected users who used Google Takeout to export their Google Photos content between November 21 and November 25,” explains a Google spokesperson in a statement to 9to5Google.
“These users may have received either an incomplete archive, or videos — not photos — that were not theirs,” the spokesperson explains. “We fixed the underlying issue and have conducted an in-depth analysis to help prevent this from ever happening again. We are very sorry this happened.”
Whoa, what? @googlephotos? pic.twitter.com/2cZsABz1xb
— Jon Oberheide (@jonoberheide) February 4, 2020
Affected users have received quite vague emails, simply informing them that “one or more videos in your Google Photos account was affected by this issue” without specifying which ones, or how many people were given access.
Google also advises that backups downloaded during this timeframe might be incomplete, so it’s worth checking and re-saving them to ensure your archives aren’t missing any snaps.
The tech giant fixed the issue in under a week, adding that just 0.01 percent of Google Photo users who used Takeout during this time were affected. But with Google Photos boasting over 1 billion users, the number of people impacted could be quite high. The company added that none of its other apps were affected.
