Gemini scans my Google Photos now, so I moved everything under my control and saved money

Breaking news: Google Gemini is everywhere.

If you scoffed at that, then you're at the right place, or should I say the right article.

I don't have any qualms with Gemini. I am quite happy with it for my productivity tasks. However, after the recent update, Gemini can scan through my Google Photos for personal context if I choose to give it access.

I don't like AI snooping around my private stuff, but I do like the convenience of accessing my photos and videos from anywhere, while also having a backup.

So I set out to find a Google Photos alternative. Something that doesn't use my photos as training data (even if Google says otherwise), and hopefully, something that works as effortlessly as Google Photos.

I also wanted to remove the cost of a cloud storage subscription from my recurring expenses.

After going through a few options, I settled on picking up a Synology NAS, but this one is different. It's a NAS that even my meemaw can set up, and the Android app is as good as Google Photos, with location tags and albums.

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Time for a cloud burst

Why I chose to leave Google Photos for a local solution

The convenience of cloud storage is its biggest strength. I already pay for OneDrive and Google One cloud storage. I was fine with both these options as long as my data remained secure and private.

You can opt out of the Personalized Intelligence option that brings Gemini to your Google Drive, Photos and Gmail. However, I know big tech loves to apologize rather than seek permission.

I don't doubt Google's intentions with the Gemini integration. However, I am not risking my photos and videos on the cloud for AI photo edits and travel recommendations.

Apart from private moments, my Google Photos library has screenshots of receipts, passwords and bank details. These things are as precious to me, and I refuse to share them with an AI. Think of Sméagol with the One Ring, and you're close.

I looked for a local solution and opted for the Synology BeeStation Plus. It's easy to set up, creates a local cloud connection, and more importantly, gives me peace of mind.

It's easier than booking an Uber

I don't understand NAS, but I understood BeeStation easily

Network devices and I have always been enemies. I find it difficult to set up NAS devices, but I set up the Synology BeeStation Plus in less than 5 minutes.

It's genuinely a plug-and-play experience, and you can do it on your smartphone as well. However, I recommend using a PC because you will need to download your files from Google Photos to your PC, and then transfer them to the BeeStation Plus.

Transferring data from the Google Photos app to the Synology BeeStation Plus was also surprisingly simple. I went to the Google Takeout page and downloaded my entire photo library to my PC.

Then I downloaded the BeeStation for Desktop app that lets me upload these zip files directly to the NAS.

After that, I downloaded the BeePhotos app on my smartphone, which organizes everything for me similar to how Google Photos does.

My albums and timelines synced perfectly. The only thing I missed was an intelligent search bar.

Google lets you find things very quickly if you're connected to the internet, but the BeePhotos app can only fetch photos based on location names and generic words like cat, dog, or beach.

Money for nothing …

… and storage for free

I planned to shift my family members from Google Photos to my NAS, so I opted for the BeeStation Plus with 8TB storage. The BeeStation app lets you invite up to eight people to sync their files to the NAS without any overlap.

Each member has their own private login for the shared storage space, and only the owners can access all files.

I would recommend getting the 4TB variant that costs $399.99. The Synology BeeStation 4TB costs $33.33 per month for the first, and only, year. In comparison, a Google One subscription for 5TB storage is around $19.99 per month, every year.

I have been paying for my Google One subscription for two years, so the total cost of using Google One storage is $479.76.

If you split the cost with a family member for 4TB or even 8TB, you can reduce the monthly cost until you pay off the total. And after the total is paid off, you can easily remove cloud storage from your monthly recurring expenses.

Besides Synology BeeStation Plus, other traditional NAS are available as well, but this is the only one that feels like a plug-and-play experience for me.

I will miss my 1 million token context window in Gemini, and Google doesn't provide a standalone Gemini subscription. Luckily for me, I've been meaning to try out Claude.