The Google Photos Setting Google Calls 'Biometric Data'

Our Take

Credit to Mading Thok for digging into a setting most people never touch. Google Photos' "Face Groups" feature is, by Google's own admission, biometric data collection — it clusters your face across years of photos whether you asked it to or not. The fix is buried three menus deep, which tells you everything about how these defaults are designed: opt-out, not opt-in.

We cover license plate readers, not photo apps, but the pattern is identical. Flock Safety cameras scan every plate that passes, building a searchable history of where you've been, and most drivers never consented to that either — they just drove down a road that got flagged as a good spot for a camera. Biometric face data and vehicle movement data are different inputs feeding the same machine: a permanent record of ordinary people's lives, assembled quietly, defended as "safety" or "convenience," and rarely explained in plain language until someone makes a video like this one.

The lesson applies beyond your phone settings. If a tech giant can slip biometric tracking into a menu nobody opens, a police department or private company can just as easily install a camera on your street without a public vote. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your neighborhood, and visit take action if you want to push back on surveillance infrastructure going up without your say.