I use Google / Picasa to publish the photos you see here. I upload them to my Google+ account, then copy the embed code here.

Recently, Google came out with a new feature, “Auto Backup” – on its own, it animates some of my photos, and on the weekend, Google made me this animated gif of my year in photos.

Here’s the problem.

I have my Google+ account organized into months, plus one private folder called, “Holding Tank”.

Days ahead of blogging, I filter photos and upload them to ‘Holding Tank’ until they’re ready to be moved to a public folder.

(the red smudge is masking the authentication key for the private folder.)

Bottom row, second from the left – that’s a private photo.

This one:

So accidentally, a private photo was published.

Proof that the only safe way to keep something protected, is not to upload it at all.

This isn’t dire, that’s me at a Canadian Tire winter tire event I haven’t blogged yet.

I’d guess  Google’s response would be that the animated gif wasn’t public until I made it so, but, if that one photo was at all compromising, I couldn’t use this .gif.

I didn’t even catch this mistake until the day after I’d blogged the gif.