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5 Comments

Should I save images uploaded by users?

I'm building an app that requires users to upload images (and then I process them before sending it back). I am going back and forth between storing the images (in a Google Cloud Bucket) or deleting them. My reservations come down to two things:

  1. Worrying about privacy / GDPR stuff.
  2. What if they upload some illegal image that ends up in my cloud bucket.

Am I overthinking this? Do you have to do something special or its not a big deal?

Thanks!

  1. 2

    I think you are looking at this from the wrong approach. I would really look and see if there is any value in keeping the images. I know nothing about your product, but my gut tells me that there could be some value in keeping the images. Maybe the users can see their previously loaded images, and that would help them come back?

    Judging from your username it looks like you are in the U.S. This is controversial, but I really wouldn't worry too much about GDPR. Once you get big enough you can hire a compliance consultant to worry about some of your issues. But right now I'd make this decision solely on the value it provides to your business and it's customers.

  2. 2

    I got a great suggestion for you.

    Collect images process them as per requirement and keep a safe storage for limited amount of time say 48 hours or 7 days, whichever works for you.

    This way you could ensure safety both for you and user's privacy. Also don't take too much headache about GDPR, as long as you are doing your best you are good to go.

    Happy Developing.

  3. 2

    It's definitely easier to delete the data but only if you're sure you will not need it in the future. I'm not sure about the implementation but if you don't need them after, say, 30 days or something, you're better off removing them for a lot of reasons (storage cost, compliance, etc...). But if you need them then I don't think there's much harm in storing them. The scale you would need to reach to have compliance become an issue is pretty big so at that point you should be able to handle it (in my experience at least).

  4. 2

    Looking at it from compliance point of view,
    you will be more in trouble from keeping too much data , than too little data,
    depending on your local laws you could be required to log app usage , but you can not be forced the store all image data , so indeed you have 2 options

    • delete the data as soon as possible
    • store longer time but than you need to review what you store for illegal stuff

    reality is that i have people upload images for use in forms, and we review everything, and there is little illegal stuff being uploaded, most is trademark and phishing issues we block.

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