Does Google Photos scan your photos?

“Scan” means different things in different headlines. Some people ask whether Google looks at their photos at all. Some ask about face recognition. Some ask about the new Gemini features. This guide takes Google’s own help pages and lists what Google Photos reads, what it does with it, and which switches turn it off. The steps are for the Google Photos app on Android. The iPhone app has the same settings.

What Google Photos reads, feature by feature

Feature	What it reads	Can you turn it off?
Face Groups	Faces, and clothing or time when a face is not visible	Yes, and turning it off deletes the face models
Search	People, things, places and text in photos	Google lists no switch for classic search
Memories	Your library, faces and dates	Yes, or hide people and dates
Ask Photos and Gemini features	Photos, face labels, account information	Yes
Abuse detection	Uploaded content	No

These run on the photos in your Google Photos account. Photos that stay only on your phone, with backup off, are not in that account.

Face Groups

Face Groups is the feature people mean by facial recognition. Google describes it in 3 steps. Google Photos detects whether a photo has a face. If Face Groups is on, it makes face models “that numerically represent the images of faces”. Then it groups photos of the same person.

Some details from Google’s page matter for privacy:

• Google says face models “may be considered biometric data in some jurisdictions”.
• Google may group a photo by other signals too, such as the same clothing when the face is not visible.
• Face groups and labels are visible only to you. They are not shared when you share photos.
• Google keeps face models until you delete them, or until the account is inactive for more than 2 years.
• Face Groups is not available in all regions or for all account types.

How to turn off Face Groups

1. Open the Google Photos app.
2. At the top, tap your profile photo or initial.
3. Tap Google Photos settings, then Privacy. You can also tap Preferences, then Group similar faces.
4. Turn off Face Groups.

Google says this deletes your face groups, the face models used to make them, and your face labels. To stop grouping pets only, turn off Show pets with people.

Search by content

Google Photos search finds photos by more than file name. Google’s examples include “all the videos of a person”, “a photo of a pet’s vet invoice by the vet clinic’s name” and “pictures of colorful sunsets in Mexico”. Search with quotation marks matches “text within photos”. So Google Photos reads the things, places and words in your pictures.

Google’s search help page lists no switch to turn this off. If Face Groups is off, search by name stops, because there are no face labels to search.

Memories

Featured memories pick photos from your library by date and theme. You can turn them off:

1. In Google Photos, tap your profile photo or initial, then Photos settings.
2. Tap Preferences, then Memories, then Memory types.
3. Turn off Time-based memories and Themed memories.
4. Tap Creations and turn off each type.

To keep memories but leave out a person, go to Preferences, Memories, Hide faces.

Ask Photos and Gemini features in Photos

Ask Photos answers questions about your library, such as “What did I eat on my trip to Barcelona?”. Google’s privacy hub says Gemini features in Photos use your photos and videos, face group labels and information in your Google Account. Google says it may also make inferences, such as “guessing the age and locations of your top face groups”.

You must opt in. Google lists the conditions: you are 18 or older, in a launched country, with Face Groups on and location estimates on.

Google says people do not review Ask Photos responses, unless you give feedback or in rare cases of abuse. People may review your questions, after Google removes the link to your account. To turn the features off:

1. In Google Photos, tap your profile photo or initial, then Photos settings.
2. Tap Preferences, then Gemini features in Photos.
3. Turn off Search with Ask Photos, or turn off Use Gemini in Photos for all of them.
4. To stop review of your questions, tap Help us improve photos and turn off Allow us to access your queries.

Child sexual abuse material

Google states that it uses technology to “deter, detect, and remove” this material from its platforms. It names hash matching for known material, and machine learning classifiers for new material, which specialist teams then confirm. When Google finds it, Google removes it and reports it to NCMEC, and it can limit or close the account. This applies to Google’s platforms in general. There is no setting for it.

What about Locked Folder?

Google says Locked Folder items do not show in the photo grid, memories, search or albums. That changes what other people see in the app. Google’s pages do not say that backed-up Locked Folder items skip other processing. Locked Folder uses Google Photos’ standard encryption. Our Locked Folder guide covers its backup switch.

Is Google Photos encrypted?

Yes, but not end-to-end. The Google Safety Center says Photos uses HTTPS in transit and “encryption at rest”. Android Help says some phone backup data is encrypted with your screen lock, but “photos and videos in Google Photos” are not. Google’s systems process your photos themselves. That is how face groups, search and memories work.

End-to-end encryption is a different design. The photo is encrypted on your phone, and the key never leaves your devices. Then the cloud stores only data it cannot read, and it cannot group faces or search inside the pictures. See end-to-end encryption.

What Google says it does not do

• Google says it does not sell your personal information.
• Google says it does not use the content you store in Photos for ads.
• Google says it does not train generative models outside Google Photos with your personal data in Google Photos. If you connect Google Photos to another Google service, that service’s policies apply.

How to keep some photos out of it

1. Back up only the folders you choose. Google calls this selective backup.
2. Turn off Face Groups and Gemini features in Photos settings.
3. Keep sensitive photos out of Google Photos, in a place that encrypts them on the phone.

For built-in options on Android, read how to hide photos on Android. If other people use your Google account, read how to move photos off a shared Google account.

What York Vault does

York Vault encrypts each photo, video and file on your phone before it saves it. On Android, it backs up every item, encrypted, to a hidden app folder in your own Google Drive. On iPhone, it uses your own iCloud. Google and Apple store only encrypted data and no key. We hold no copy and no key either. See what we can and cannot see.

York Vault does read photos in two places, and both run on the phone. The sensitive-photo scan finds IDs, documents, private screenshots and intimate photos in your gallery, if you agree. With Plus or Pro, search inside pictures finds things and words in your library. No image, thumbnail or result leaves the phone for either one. Viewing, export and restore stay free on every plan. See pricing and download York Vault.