Hidden images showing up in other applications

[userUWwlmEoM8a]

I found this privacy issue last night. My phone is a Samsung A31 with Android 11. I have a few albums which I have set to hidden, However the images in those albums are visible from applications which allows to upload images i.e.; Instagram, twitter. This is a breach of privacy.

Here is a screenshot of "Hide or unhide albums" menu with an album with an image for this demo:

Here is the picture of the gallery:

As you can see the "Hidden Album 1" is not there in the main gallery.

However when I open an app which allows me to upload images in this case Instagram this happens:

The image which is still in the "Hidden Album 1" can be seen and also uploaded. 

Is there a fix to this? because this is very concerning as this is a breach of privacy (CalderCay response).

[user751201tmO21]

"Hidden" is an option only known to Gallery ... it doesn't actually set the subdirectory to hidden globally ... it's only designed to be hidden when you're using Gallery

So yea, not a privacy breach

[userUWwlmEoM8a]

So is there a way to make it hidden globally? 

[user751201tmO21 · Accepted solution]

.
Well, Android is basically Linux, so any subdirectory that has a period as the first character in its name makes it "hidden", but file managers such as Google Files has an option for "Show hidden subdirectories"

But yea, the average Joe/Joan won't know to do that.

To make photos absolutely hidden, copy them to your desktop or laptop, or to Google Photos, then delete them from the phone 👍

[userUWwlmEoM8a]

Thank you! I should've figured out about the "." 

[user365170tdJ15]

... hubby is a Linux fanatic 🙂