Are Google Photos shared albums private?

24 October 2026 · 6 min read

Google Photos is one of the easiest ways to share photos of your kids with family: make an album, send a link, done. But how private is that album, really? It depends on a few settings most people never check. Here's how sharing works, and how to lock it down.

Two ways to share an album

With specific people: you invite people by name, email or phone number, and they see the album in Google Photos.
With a link: anyone who has the link can open the album, whether or not you invited them.

The link is the one to watch. It can be forwarded, pasted into a group chat or posted somewhere you'll never see. And as Google's help pages explain, if you share an album by link and then remove someone, they can rejoin with the link unless you turn link sharing off.

The settings to check

Open the album and go to its sharing options. Then check:

Link sharing: turn it off once everyone you want has joined. If you turn it back on later, Google creates a new link.
Collaborate: when it's on, anyone with the link can add photos. Turn it off if you only want people to look.
Share photo locations: Google says shared albums don't include location details by default. Keep it that way, so the album doesn't reveal where photos were taken.
Members: remove anyone who shouldn't be there.

For photos you share by link outside an album, Google Photos settings also have an option to remove location information from items shared by link.

Two limits to keep in mind. Turning off sharing doesn't delete copies people have already downloaded. And even without location data, a landmark or a school logo in the background can give away where a photo was taken.

What Google can see

Google encrypts your photos when they're uploaded, shared and stored, but Google Photos isn't end-to-end encrypted: Google holds the decryption keys. That's what makes features like search and face recognition possible, and it means Google's automated systems can scan what you upload.

Those systems can get it wrong. In 2022, The New York Times reported on a father whose Google account was disabled after he photographed his toddler's infection for a doctor. Police found that no crime had been committed, but he lost access to his emails, his photos and his phone service.

Is it private enough?

An album shared with specific people, with link sharing off, is reasonably private from strangers. It isn't private from Google, and an album shared by link is only as private as the most careless person who has the link. For photos of their children, many parents prefer an album that only invited family can open, and that's end-to-end encrypted so even the service can't see the photos.

Quick checklist

Share with named people rather than a link, where you can.
Turn off link sharing once everyone has joined.
Turn off Collaborate unless you want others adding photos.
Keep photo locations off.
Review album members every few months.

On iPhone? See are iCloud Shared Albums private?