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Posted by u/1penny42cents 5 years ago
Ask HN: Are you interested in a privacy-first photo management solution?
We're building a privacy-first photo management solution. We aim to provide the convenience of cloud-based solutions, with the privacy that their architecture can't offer. We're looking for our first users! If the idea sparks your interest, please answer these questions to see if there's a fit: https://duf1rbk6mma.typeform.com/to/yndxOz1n
rochak · 5 years ago
Can you go a bit more into how you are putting privacy first? Of course, it will also depend upon how you are planning to monetise. If it is a subscription like offering, you would need a solid privacy focusing reason to bring in customers. I have been looking for a solution that I can self host and works like a photo library, not just a file browser. Of course, the subscription model would work for people who don’t want to self host.
1penny42cents · 5 years ago
The current solutions are to either store your photos with Google, at the expense of privacy, or store them on your own servers, at the expense of running those servers.

We'd help you store, sync, and serve your photos across the devices you already own. The goal would be to have all of the convenience of Google's servers with the privacy of your own. Users would pay a subscription for the service, regardless of how much they store or serve.

damianmoore · 5 years ago
Hi @rochak. I've been wanting something similar for a while and have been working on my own solution with a focus on privacy and open source. For this reason all image analysis (AI/location awareness etc.) is done locally and it can all run within a Docker container. This is the site so far and there's also an online demo: https://photonix.org/
rochak · 5 years ago
Hi @damian. That looks pretty cool. I’ll check it out. Just a small question - Is there any future plan to have a UI/UX that looks like a photo library, kind of like Google Photos. I understand that a lot of tagging and organising can be done using metadata, but I prefer building my own library and customising it. Nevertheless, this is pretty close to what I have in mind and because it is open source, I’ll see if I can extend it a bit to suit my needs.
blackcats · 5 years ago
Not me, to much effort and everything is botnet. For “privacy” you would need a complete OS in an isolated space. Probably dedicated hardware too. Kaspersky was spot on

Anyway, there must be a market for that. The value proposition could be meaningful

rusinov · 5 years ago
Why use this and not iCloud Photo Library, for example?
1penny42cents · 5 years ago
With iCloud, you need to trust your photos with Apple. That trust has some benefits and some costs. Some people like the convenience, but others are more worried about decreased privacy and decreased autonomy.

Our solution is a peer-to-peer network of your own devices - we help you manage your own photos. You don't need to trust any cloud provider to store your photos and not rip you off for it.