Are your family photos really safe online? Ask expert your questions

[EllieSmumsnet]

From first steps, to birthday parties, school plays and everyday moments, your family photos capture it all. But in today’s digital world, keeping those memories safe isn’t always as simple as it should be.

Whether you're trying to figure out how to safely share albums with family and friends, the easiest way to back up photos from your phone, thinking about the risk of platforms like Google Drive or Dropbox, or you're worried about your photos being used to train AI or fuel targeted ads, expert Nouha from Proton Drive is here to help.

You don’t need to be tech-savvy to join the conversation. Proton Drive is here to offer simple, trustworthy advice so you can feel confident your family’s most precious moments stay private and protected.

• Everyone who shares a questions on the thread below by 05/06/2025 will be entered into a prize draw
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• Our expert Nouha from Proton Drive will be back soon to answer some of your questions

About the expert
“Hi everyone, I’m Nouha — I lead Growth at Proton Drive, where we build privacy-first alternatives to Big Tech services like Google and Microsoft. Unlike those, we don’t track your family's emails, photos, or browsing habits and definitely don’t collect data on your kids as they grow up. Our mission is simple: to help people take back control of their digital lives, and over 100 million people trust us to do just that.

Technology moves fast, and it can feel like a lot to keep up with. That’s why I’m here: to help make it a little easier to understand and navigate.”

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ
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Unfortunately, no. Most social media platforms, like Instagram, don't even let you know if someone has viewed your post unless they interact with it (by liking it, for example), much less if they've taken a screenshot. Even if they did alert you, bad actors could use another device to take a photo to get around this system. While it's good you've taken steps to make your Instagram profile more private, but even if you limit who can see your profile, if you put a photo on Instagram, you're sharing it with Meta itself. Meta says it only uses public data and images to train its AI, so presumably this doesn't include images from an account that's set to private, but it's unclear. It's also worth noting that unless you live in the EU, you can't explicitly opt out of letting Meta use your Instagram images to train its AI.

Hi thanks for your questions! With Proton, you can setup two-factor authentication (2FA) in a few steps, we definitely recommend the additional layer of security it provides. You can setup 2FA without a phone number, using a 2FA app instead like FreeOTP, Authy or Aegis. We have a detailed, easy to follow guide here on setting up 2FA with your Proton account. https://proton.me/support/two-factor-authentication-2fa

This is a good question. It depends on what you mean by "safe". If you make your Facebook profile private, it will limit who can see and find your photos. However, the people that can see your photos (typically your friends on the platform) can make copies without you knowing it. Additionally, if you put a photo on Facebook, you're sharing it with Meta itself. Meta says it only uses public data and images to train its AI, so presumably this doesn't include images from an account that's set to private, but it's unclear. It's also worth noting that unless you live in the EU, you can't explicitly opt out of letting Meta use your Instagram images to train its AI. In the past, Facebook has used photos on its platform to train facial recognition software.

Do you have a computer? High capacity external hard drives are pretty cheap and can store a lifetimes photos. A good alternative if you don't trust cloud storage.

This depends on a lot of different factors, but let's break it down.
Depending on your phone, you can likely set the resolution and frames per second (FPS) for the video you record. Assuming your videos are typically one minute long, the size of those video files should correspond to the following:
A Full HD video (1080p) recorded at 30 FPS for 1 min should be roughly 37.5 MB
A Full HD video recorded at 60 FPS for 1 min should be roughly 75 MB
A UHD (4K) video recorded at 30 FPS for 1 min should be roughly 150 MB
A UHD video recorded at 60 FPS for 1 min should be rouhgly 300 MB
From there it depends on how many videos you take. If you go on a week-long holiday and take two videos a day, that's 14 videos, meaning it could take up as little as 525 MB (all Full HD/30 FPS) or as much as 4.2 GB (all UHD/60 FPS).
You could easily store all of that and have room to spare for photos with the 5 GB that comes with a Proton Drive Free plan. Sign up today! https://proton.me/drive/family-photos

This is a great question. While Google has systems in place to protect your photos and data, they don’t guarantee full privacy or control. Your photos are not stored end-to-end encrypted — Google can still see all your data. Every photo you upload carries metadata, such as timestamps, location, and device info. Google uses this, along with AI features like face recognition to organize your library. It can highlight the albums you view most often in Memories and recognize places, events, pets, and people. Google has also introduced Ask Photos, an AI tool powered by its Gemini language model that lets you search your photo history. While useful, it raises questions about how much Google analyzes your photos — and what else it might learn from these. If you’re looking for true privacy, Proton Drive offers what Google Photos doesn’t: end-to-end encryption by design — and this protection can’t be turned off. Your photos and files can only be accessed by you and the people you choose to share them with — not even we can see them and they're never used to train AI.

Hi! Thanks for your question! It depends what cloud storage you're using. With a Proton Drive account, any files you accidentally delete go into your 'Trash' - from here, you can recover them. You can also recover in a similar way from a Google photos account.

Hi! Thanks for your question. We understand that switching can be difficult and depending on the number of photos and videos, can be time consuming. Switching over from Apple, or other popular providers to Proton Drive is easy, and can be done in a few simple steps. We've got a dedicated support page just for moving from Apple here. https://proton.me/support/import-files-icloud

Once you've transferred photos and videos, you can access them on any device and can use secure links to share individual photos or albums with your family and friends.

Hi! Thanks for your question, the offer you might have seen was perhaps the special limited time anniversary offer we had across Proton to celebrate our 11th anniversary. This was only active for a few weeks unfortunately, but we run different promotions throughout the year for our users to upgrade, and new users!

Hi! Thanks for your question. While Google has systems in place to protect your photos and data, they don’t guarantee full privacy or control. Your photos are not stored end-to-end encrypted — Google can still see all your data. Every photo you upload carries metadata, such as timestamps, location, and device info. Google uses this, along with AI features like face recognition to organize your library. It can highlight the albums you view most often in Memories and recognize places, events, pets, and people. Google has also introduced Ask Photos, an AI tool powered by its Gemini language model that lets you search your photo history. While useful, it raises questions about how much Google analyzes your photos — and what else it might learn from these. If you’re looking for true privacy, Proton Drive offers what Google Photos doesn’t: end-to-end encryption by design — and this protection can’t be turned off. Your photos and files can only be accessed by you and the people you choose to share them with — not even we can see them and your photos are never used to train AI.

Hi! Thanks for your question. Switching over from Dropbox, or other popular providers to Proton Drive is easy, and can be done in a few simple steps. We've got a dedicated support page just for moving from Dropbox here. https://proton.me/support/import-files-dropbox

Once you've transferred photos, you can access them on any device and can secure share links to individual photos or albums with your family and friends.

Hi Thanks for your question! With a Proton Drive account, its easy to upgrade or downgrade between plans, if you're feeling unsure about how Proton Drive works - its free to create an account. You get 5GB of storage with the Free plan. You can easily upgrade to the Plus plan which gives you more storage and premium features. For household access, we know how important it is to manage your family's online security - that's why we have a dedicated family plan. Access for up to 6 users in your family to get premium services across Proton with their own login. You can also set access limitations and manage this as the account holder. See here for more details https://proton.me/family

Hi! Thanks for your comment. Yes this can be true - we've actually written about this on our blog as we know people might think Whatsapp is safer than it is, especially for sending photos! Check it out if you want to know more or want to share it with friends and family! https://proton.me/blog/whatsapp-safe-private-photos. If you're looking for WhatsApp alternatives, we've recommended some here https://proton.me/blog/whatsapp-alternatives

Hi! With Proton Drive you can access your files, photos and videos wherever you are, on desktop, such as a laptop or on mobile with our iPhone and Android apps. You can also easily download from Proton Drive directly to your device, meaning you can send them for printing without any changes using your device's Bluetooth or with a cable.

Hi! Thanks for your question. We understand your concern and the risks with hacking. Proton's entire security model runs on zero-access, end-to-encryption - meaning some of the strongest protection against your photos and files being hacked. With this, we still recommend to all our users to use two-factor authentication. With Proton, you can setup two-factor authentication (2FA) in a few steps, using a 2FA app like FreeOTP, Authy or Aegis. We have a detailed, easy to follow guide here on setting up 2FA with your Proton account. https://proton.me/support/two-factor-authentication-2fa

Hi! Thanks for your question, we know storage size can be tricky especially with the number of photos we take and get sent almost daily! Here's a guide from Google with some tips on managing your storage. https://support.google.com/photos/answer/9284827?sjid=4838337083368424529-EU
Depending on your usage, perhaps extending your storage might be the best option.

Hi! Thanks for your question. With Proton Drive, there's no limit on file size! Take a look at our plans here, with a free account you get 5GB, that's around 1k+ high res photos! We offer more storage that's flexible to your needs. https://proton.me/drive/family-photos

Hi! Thanks for your question. With our newly released albums feature, you can easily create, organise and manage your photos with Proton Drive. You can store photos in as many albums as you need by simply selecting the photos you want to add to any new, or existing album. You can share individual albums with your family and friends through secure links, giving them access to view or edit the album. Find out more about using Proton Drive for your family photos here. We also have detailed guides on our support page to help you manage your albums https://proton.me/support/drive

Hi! You can upload images from your SD card to your desktop and laptop, then from there add them to your Proton Drive directly, where they will be stored privatley and securely with end-to-end encryption. You can access Proton Drive on desktop or via our mobile apps so your photos are synced wherever you are.

Hi, thanks for your question. We understand storage needs can be difficult and your usage can evolve over time. With Proton Drive, we have different storage options available and you can easily upgrade or downgrade your plan depending on whether you need more storage or not. You can create an account for free, with a free account you have capacity for around 1000 high resolution photos. With a Plus account, you get our premium features and the capacity to store over 40,000 high resolution photos. With a Proton Drive account, your storage amount is availble within your home view and dashboard so you can easily keep up to date on how much you have left, we'll also send you warnings about your maximum capacity. Learn more about our plans here https://proton.me/drive/family-photos

Hi, thanks for your question. We understand storage needs can be difficult and your usage can evolve over time. With Proton Drive, we have different storage options available and you can easily upgrade or downgrade your plan depending on whether you need more storage or not. You can create an account for free, with a free account you have capacity for around 1000 high resolution photos. With a Plus account, you get our premium features and the capacity to store over 40,000 high resolution photos. With a Proton Drive account, your storage amount is availble within your home view and dashboard so you can easily keep up to date on how much you have left, we'll also send you warnings about your maximum capacity. Learn more about our plans here https://proton.me/drive/family-photos

Hi! Thanks for your question. While Google has systems in place to protect your photos and data, they don’t guarantee full privacy or control. Your photos are not stored end-to-end encrypted — Google can still see all your data. Every photo you upload carries metadata, such as timestamps, location, and device info. Google uses this, along with AI features like face recognition to organize your library. It can highlight the albums you view most often in Memories and recognize places, events, pets, and people, including your children. Google has also introduced Ask Photos, an AI tool powered by its Gemini language model that lets you search your photo history. While useful, it raises questions about how much Google analyzes your photos — and what else it might learn from these. If you’re looking for true privacy, Proton Drive offers what Google Photos doesn’t: end-to-end encryption — and this protection can’t be turned off. Your photos and files can only be accessed by you and the people you choose to share them with — not even we can see them and your photos are never used to train AI. For more information check out this https://proton.me/drive/family-photos

Hi! We don't have AI integrations within Proton Drive, but you can organise and manage your photos easily through albums including marking your favourites, alternatively your photos are saved in date order - so you can find these according to a certain date.

Hi! Depending on when you deleted your account, you can still access your profile to get your photos for a certain period of time. For Instagram, you can learn more here https://help.instagram.com/139886812848894/?cms_platform=iphone-app&helpref=platform_switcher and Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/help/212666185422169/

thank you