Metadata free way of finding your image

[Lincoln]

Might be of interest to those filing family or recognisable destinations. Google's answer just came out - details can be found here
http://www.theverge.com/a/sundars-google/google-photos-google-io-2015

[RalfC]

Personally, I am not so sure that this (Google Photos) will be a good answer:

Google will scan all photos for metadata (e.g. location, keywords) and pattern recognition (e.g. faces, text, characteristic buildings, ...).
Then, those informations will be combined with all (i.e. not only the own ones, although you will see only yours!) other images, which are stored on their servers and optimize their databases, using some artificial intelligence algorithms. You will only see the information (virtual albums, Metadata, Tags, ...) Google wants you to see.

In the end, Google will have a perfect idea who you are, whom you know, where you live / travel, what are your interests, etc.
For selling personalized advertisement (Google's main source of income), these informations are an extremely valuable asset.

My conclusion: this is not free. You'll pay with your data

Regards,
Ralf

PS: I didn't even mention the potential problems concerning the privacy issues of the persons on the photo. Most likely, Google will also get some kind of profile of those persons, even if they did not consent to the 'service'.

[Mario]

Yes, people. Upload all your photos to Google. They will analyze them, learn about you, sell that information for lots of money to advertisers, insurance companies, governmental agencies and other bodies interested in knowing all about you. I can only shake my head in horror when I see that people are really giving Google and FB all their private data for free...a nightmare. Did nobody learn from Snowden?

[DigPeter]

Orwell's "1984" and Big Brother have nothing on this 

[Mario]

<rant, don't read>
I often recommend the recent book "The Circle" by Dave Eggers. It's not high-literature but it has a pretty unique grasp on the entire Google/FB topic. For some it's a real eye opener. Some friends even quit FB after reading it 

I think if if would be made public what FB and Google and their vast computing intelligence can find out about everybody, these companies would be broken up immediately and new laws would be made. FB and Google only make money from selling ads. The social network, search engine, video portal etc. are only just tools to sell more ads. And more and more apparently also tools to control the masses.

Insurance agencies and banks already consider FB data and other social media sources, the web sites you visit, the traces you leave every day to calculate your personal risk or interest rate. Most people out there are not aware of all the scoring that goes on in the background. Or why you pay 8% and your neighbor only 6%..

Thanks to face tagging and the cameras mounted everywhere, interested parties can already tell if you visit specific shops or bars often (even if you don't let Google track you via the GPS in your smart phone  and you don't pay with a credit card or bonus cards). I know software which is able to track customers from when they enter a mall to when they leave it (face recognition) and then update your profile with the floors you were, the products you looked at etc. Basically what Amazon does, but in a real shop or mall.

And when people now allow Google to analyze their images, Google learns about your vacation, spare time activities, workplace, the street you live in, the car you drive, friends (even those not on FB) and a lot more. If you think about it for longer than it takes to sign up to the latest buzz, it's actually a bit frightening. I'm an IT guy and we IT folks see this apparently a lot more differentiated than normal people. No harm in controlling the data you reveal about you. We Germans even have a word for this ("Datensparsamkeit" - roughly "data minimization").

Although insurance companies and banks may give you a lower score when you are not active on FB or other social networks. Who knows what strange person you are if you don't upload photos of your lunch to Instagram... 

There is software very interesting which can analyze the 'social sphere' (FB, Twitter, WhatsApp, ...) almost in real time, for sentiment analysis or similar purposes. A useful tool e.g. for politicians to get quick feedback after a speech or TV interview, for newspapers get feedback after an article was published, for TV stations to get feedback on how ads or advertorials worked etc.

Unfortunately, most people are not aware of all this and how this already affects their everyday life... 
Nobody knew what the NSA and other secret services were doing before Snowden published it.
</rant, don't read>

[DigPeter]

The problem is that any are now so reliant on the internet, particularly Google search.  I do not think that much can be done in practice as the so called social media feeds off people's vanity.  I avoid FB.   I have tried DuckDuckGo which apparently does not log everything - is that true?  who knows?  Its search engine is not as good as Google's.

[Mario]

One of the problems is that Google has become so dominating. Search engine. YouTube. Android. Soon your watch, car, fridge ...it's everywhere - like "The Circle".

[herman]

I have tried DuckDuckGo which apparently does not log everything - is that true?  who knows?  Its search engine is not as good as Google's.

I am avoiding FB and Google as well.
In my browser I have installed a couple of tracking-protection add-ons.
The funny thing is that, when I have it set up to block Google tracking, I am not allowed to view some youtube videos embedded in websites 
My default search engine these days is StartPage.
They use Google results without logging your data.
An alternative may be the meta search engine Ixquick which also does not record your data.