Centralized companies intent on harvesting user data are a much bigger threat than most people realize.Google is a prime example in this regard, following its Google Photo debacle.

To put this in perspective,  this entire ordeal does not appear to have occurred due to ill-intent.

Instead, a technical problem has caused a very uneasy and uncommon situation.

Users of Google Photo may have exported their private videos to complete strangers.

The issue dates back to November of 2019, and took four full days to resolve.

So far, only users relying on Google Takeout to download their data as a video exporting option.

It is equally possible that people who downloaded their data through this feature have suddenly received files from strangers. 

Thankfully, the number of users on Google Takeout during this four-day stretch is very low. 

That doesn’t turn this massive mistake into something that can be brushed off, but it provides a bit of perspective. 

Future repetitions of such an incident will no longer be possible, as the flaw has been resolved.

All victims have been notified about the mishap and received an official apology from Google.

When relying on data-hungry centralized companies to store private information, something like this is bound to happen sooner or later. 

Image(s): Shutterstock.com

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