How to prevent apps from accessing private photos

Your photo library holds the memories of your life, but apps like Facebook could be sneaking a peek at your photos using the latest Meta cloud scanning technology. Here's a quick guide to checking which apps can access your photos and how to stop them from accessing your personal albums.

 

Check app album access

First you need to do a quick check on photo access privacy.

On your phone, go to Settings and select Privacy & Security . Then select Photos to see which apps are accessing your photos.

 

In this list, if you see any suspicious application, select it and change it to None to block access to photos on the phone.

Adjust app photo sharing permissions

Some apps like Facebook, for example, even have the feature of automatically sharing photo albums without specifically notifying you.

We access Facebook Settings & Privacy and select Settings . Next, select Sharing suggestions based on photo library .

 

You will now see the option See suggestions based on your photo library as you browse Facebook is turned on by default. You will now need to turn this setting off on Facebook .

In addition, with the Google Photos application, you should also turn off automatic backup on Google Photos to limit the application from automatically scanning your personal and private images.

1. How to turn off automatic Google Photos sync

Some ways to protect personal photos

Additionally, you can protect your photos with these additional steps:

1. Turn off auto-sync in Google Photos or iCloud to save photos locally.
2. Use offline editing apps like Snapseed to avoid uploading data to the cloud.
3. Remove metadata by taking a screenshot before sharing your sensitive photos.
4. Always review permissions monthly or after every update and delete unused apps.