• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, February 5, 2020

Google yesterday publicly acknowledged and apologized for having accidentally sent some users’ private videos to strangers.

For a few days in November, some users of Google Takeout received videos that were not their own, which had been uploaded to Google Photos.

“We are notifying people about a bug that may have affected users who used Google Takeout to export their Google Photos content between November 21 and November 25,” said a Google statement sent to 9to5Google, which first reported the story, and to other press.

“These users may have received either an incomplete archive, or videos — not photos — that were not theirs. We fixed the underlying issue and have conducted an in-depth analysis to help prevent this from ever happening again. We are very sorry this happened.”

An apology letter sent by Google to those affected, which was tweeted (above) by security researcher Jon Oberheide,  states that “some videos in Google Photos were incorrectly exported to unrelated users’ archives,” that “one or more videos in your Google Photos account was affected by this issue,” and that the problem was corrected. 

Google is advising those who received the email to export again and delete the prior attempt.

Google said that fewer than 0.01% of those who exported using the tool during that time were affected, but has declined to specify an estimated number. Google Photos has 1 billion users, points out The Verge.

Ironically, as noted by CNBC, Google Takeout was a feature added to give users more control over what they store on the platform. It enables users to download all of their data for private backup purposes, including in the event that they want to delete their Google accounts.