A CAUTIONARY TALE - WHERE ARE YOUR CAMERA PHONE PHOTOS TODAY?

Some weeks ago, buoyed up with minutes of research under my belt and a recommendation from a friend I ditched my old phone and invested in a shiny new Android powered Samsung Galaxy S2. From there my relationship with my phone has been a happy one, I've very much enjoyed getting to know it and the Social Media apps I can run on it and we've had some fun times together. I'm typing this blog on the Google Blogger App and until now everything has been rosy in the garden.

So what's changed?

Afew weeks before I got my phone I joined Google + and at some point whilst exploring the Android Marketplace I happened upon the Google + App which I installed and almost forgot about along with Google +. Imagine my shock, when logging onto Google + with a purpose for the first time in weeks, to find a copy of every single photo I had taken and stored on my phone, probably since installing the app, also residing in Google +.

Don't get me wrong .. the photos themselves remained private to me and hadn't been shared but I feel really aggrieved that Google by default enabled an option which allowed the Google + app to upload copies of my photos without explicitly asking me.

There are two issues for me here, one of privacy and trust and one of my phones data plan.

Privacy and Trust
I guess it was probably in the Terms & Conditions somewhere to allow Google to do this and the images weren't displayed in my circles but nevertheless they are mine and I will decide where I upload them to be it for backup, storage or display. Organisations must be aware that not only are the words and images of the people who write and capture them their property but may also be deeply personal to the individual who may  not want them shared on any platform no matter how 'private' that platform may be.

Data Plan
Those who know my home city of Bristol will be very aware of the 60ish statues of Gorillas which adorned the city to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Bristol Zoo and it became the summer time challenge of many to visit as many of the Gorillas as possible and have your photo taken with them.

I had been struggling to work out how I was going through so much data on my data plan so imagine my shock when I found copies of dozens of hi-res photos from my Gorilla trail and other adventures on Google +.

It's No Suprise Then .... my view is that Google should NOT be enabling this function called 'Instant Upload' by default. Luckily it can be turned off by doing the following:

Start your Google + for Android App then perform Menu -> Settings and un-check  'Instant Upload'.

Google Ad(non)sense

Wow - what a weekend that was. With the UK and Europe in the grip of winter I made my way to the local city of Bristol to be met by clear dry streets and a biting wind. A few cold people scurried from shop-to-stop trying to keep the Christmas spirit alive and the stall holders in the Christmas Market were trying to keep warm with free coffee from one of the Starbucks stores which had closed due to problems with the plumbing.

Our Christmas tree was finally erected having being bought last weekend, a little earlier then usual due to press reports that trees were going to be in short supply this year. It was true that when I arrived at the Garden Centre I was greeted with a "that's all that's left mate". That was fine with me. The choice was not difficult, there was little to choose from. A fine tree was chosen and is now standing adorned with the customary lights and ornaments.

It was during my shopping excursion today, when munching on a Burger King Angus Burger with Bacon & Cheese that I decided to kill off Google Adsense from the blog, at least for now. The astute amongst you who have visited before will have noticed the Google Adsense ads in two places. No more. The sense bit refers to how Google scans your blogs and displays ads based on the content of your entry.

New Blog Site

This weekend I decided to migrate my Blog away from Opera to Googles' Blogger product. The reason being that I felt that Opera Blog was literally a straight list of blog entries (a blog roll).  There was no simple way of applying other attributes to the page such as links to other sites, photos, etc in a nicely formatted and controlled way.

Google Blogger provides much more flexibility for page setup and is allowing me to expand my content quite easily. I do however still have an uneasy feeling that I might still not have found my final blog home yet.

I feel at this point I should throw myself open to suggestion from others more experienced than I in the blog world and ask who others feel provides the best overall experience for those who don't want to script their own pages.

If anybody reading has their own opinions on who I should use then I'd be grateful if you'd leave me a comment with your ideas. I'll write more about the feedback and research later.

Until then ......