Google accidentally sent people's private videos stored on Google Photos to strangers

REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

• Google Takeout is a service that allows Google Photos users to download their personal data for backups or to use with other apps.
• Google mixed up user data and sent some Takeout users' personal videos stored in Google Photos to other strangers using the service.
• The issue lasted for five days and affected up to 0.01% of users, but the exact number of people affected is unknown.
• Google instructed users affected by the issue to delete and re-download their data.
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Google notified some Google Photo users Monday that Google accidentally sent their private videos to strangers, according to The Verge.

The "technical issue" affected Google Takeout, a service that allows users to download their data for backup or to use with other apps. Users who requested backups between Nov. 21 and Nov. 25, 2019 potentially received an incomplete archive or videos that did not belong to them.

Google's email to users did not specify the number of users or videos affected but said less than 0.01% of people on Google Photos who use Takeout were affected, according to 9to5Google. More than 1 billion people use Google Photos.

No photos were affected in the mix-up according to The Verge.

Google resolved the issue within five days and encouraged users to delete any exports from that time and to re-download their content.

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Whoa, what? @googlephotos? pic.twitter.com/2cZsABz1xb

- Jon Oberheide (@jonoberheide) February 4, 2020

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