Google photos does AI so you can search for terms like 'cats' and all the pictures of cats show up. They also have other behavioral things like "hey remember this photo from a year ago" or "hey did you want to share this photo?". This is all based on data in the photos.
So if Google runs analysis on your photos, in their cloud, in a manner that doesn't cross information with other users, then we could consider this functionally equivalent to a system that runs it entirely on your device.
In many ways this is similar to search indexing for gmail, and other 'assistant' behaviors such as "you didnt reply to this, do you want to?" prompts.
This is the entire underlying premise and promise of SaaS and "the cloud".
I do think the well has been poisoned here in HN, using conspiracy like thinking, poor reasoning, and generally doubling down on confirmation bias. Some people hold Google to a higher standard of proof than anything else in their life - while a sign of mistrust, it is often based on wild accusations and bad faith arguments, eg: in this case lawsuits from ORACLE of all companies (literally the poster child for bad corporate culture, sexism at the CEO level, and sneaky business practices!).
What does Oracle’s alleged bad behaviour have to do with the merits of discussing Google’s alleged bad behaviour?
Arguably the big guys being at war with each other is one of the few saving graces for all of us little fish.
Sometimes the accusations they throw at each other will have merit, and other times not so much. Each accusation therefore deserves separate consideration.
That's basically the argument. I find it incredibly useful to me personally, but when people ask "How do we guarantee Google doesn't share data between accounts," the answer definitely is "We trust Google at their word."
So if Google runs analysis on your photos, in their cloud, in a manner that doesn't cross information with other users, then we could consider this functionally equivalent to a system that runs it entirely on your device.
In many ways this is similar to search indexing for gmail, and other 'assistant' behaviors such as "you didnt reply to this, do you want to?" prompts.
This is the entire underlying premise and promise of SaaS and "the cloud".
I do think the well has been poisoned here in HN, using conspiracy like thinking, poor reasoning, and generally doubling down on confirmation bias. Some people hold Google to a higher standard of proof than anything else in their life - while a sign of mistrust, it is often based on wild accusations and bad faith arguments, eg: in this case lawsuits from ORACLE of all companies (literally the poster child for bad corporate culture, sexism at the CEO level, and sneaky business practices!).