If I give an app access to my camera roll, what exactly does that imply? Can the app in theory upload all my photos to their server? E.g. when I upload an image to Instagram I can scroll through my camera roll and choose a photo to share. Even though I only press share on this one photo, can Instagram in theory upload my other private photos to their server? (Please add sources for your statements)
IOS – Implications of giving app access to camera roll
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Related Solutions
Directly no.
You can go the indirect route. Get all the photos to a computer, clear the photo stream manually, then enroll the computer into Photo Stream to inject the photos back into the stream in whatever order you prefer.
At that point, you can re-attach the iOS devices to the stream.
You might want to poke at the iOS side (restore or otherwise isolate the issue as it might be a software or network issue there - I've tried to break photo stream with bad network connections - lots of photos taken when offline or switching network from WiFi to 3G and back while taking pictures and it seems pretty robust to me and unbreakable when the software is working properly)
A photo stored in the Camera Roll is permanently stored on your device (until you delete it). Only 1,000 photos are saved in the Photo Stream on an iOS device, so if enough photos are uploaded to your Photo Stream the old ones will be purged. (But a Mac or PC will save all of the photos in your Photo Stream by default.)
According to Apple, the downscaling does only apply on iOS devices — if you have Photo Stream set up on your computer, those photos will be full-resolution.
On your Mac or PC, your photos are downloaded and stored in full resolution. On your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV, your Photo Stream photos are delivered in a device-optimized resolution that speeds downloads and saves storage space.
Yes — to delete multiple photos, just tap the action button in the upper right corner, select some photos, and tap the Delete button.
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Best Answer
You have nothing to worry about.
An app will always be required to ask permission to access your Camera Roll - no matter what it needs it for. Apple's photos system is built in a way that prevents an app from simply retrieving a photo and sending it to any remote service without first having your consent to do this AND it will have to display the process to the user.
Every app that is the App Store has been thoroughly examined by Apple and the binary (the code) is tested to ensure it doesn't do anything sketchy - in which case Apple would simply not allow it to be published on the App Store.
An app will only ask permission to access your Camera Roll if it wants to save a photo, or retrieve a photo for a specific use case (for example, for a profile picture). In most cases, the app will show you what it is doing with your image(s) as that is how Apple wants developers to build apps - so that they're user friendly and the user has as much control as possible. However, even if the app was built in a way that meant it would fetch images in the background (for example, Google Photos), you will always have to provide consent before it initiates anything.
Also, remember you always have the ability to decline access to your Camera Roll when the app asks, or you can go to settings and remove access from there.
If you have any further questions let me know.
I don't have any sources to list, but I'm an app developer myself.