I don’t use Windows Defender nor Google Photos nor other cloud service providers to scan my photos. I barely use gmail. I knew that Google was terrible so I have already minimized my use of Google services. Same with Facebook. But Apple!? I guess the dominos have finally gotten to me.
It is not so straightforward to not use Windows Defender if you are using Windows 10. You must edit group policies in quite deep to disable automatic scanning and startup.
Google Drive includes backups of your phone, so it is not limited to Google Photos. Literally everything that is stored unencrypted on Google servers.
Disabling all of Defender is complex, but disabling automatic sample submission is easy. It's an option in the Security settings app, and you're even allowed to disable it during first time set up (or were, last I installed Windows 10).
It nags you once, but you can ask it to stop.
Besides, uploading unseen executable code and scanning photos are far from the same tech. They're very different things.
Every binary is executabale by default. Images are only subcategory. As malware, any file is potential threat.
Also, I think disabling automatic sample submission does not disable hash upload, only full files.
