Remove the shared album as public website feature in Photos app may be a better protection for privacy.

Shared albums feature is great for close friends, but making them public websites lets anyone with the link view personal content. Photos app is meant to be private, and users can share what they want publicly on platforms like X or Instagram instead. Blurring private and public risks privacy, and without a list of public albums, users may lose track of what they’ve shared as public links. The best solution is to remove the ‘Public Website’ function and allow sharing only with selected people.



[Edited by Moderator]

iPhone 16 Pro Max

Posted on Aug 26, 2025 02:55 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 26, 2025 03:07 AM

You are right, but is the only way to give access to a shared album to friends and family without Apple Devices, so we have to use the"public website" feature responsibly. The link must not be posted publicly.

  • We need to make sure, that everybody we invite will know, that it is a public website.
  • We should only share the link to people we can trust to keep the link confidential
  • Don't allow the participants to add photos or at least remove private photos that are shared
  • And only share photos on a public website that are not private.
  • And remove the website again, as soon as everybody we invited has downloaded the photos.



4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 26, 2025 03:07 AM in response to Fibonaccii

You are right, but is the only way to give access to a shared album to friends and family without Apple Devices, so we have to use the"public website" feature responsibly. The link must not be posted publicly.

  • We need to make sure, that everybody we invite will know, that it is a public website.
  • We should only share the link to people we can trust to keep the link confidential
  • Don't allow the participants to add photos or at least remove private photos that are shared
  • And only share photos on a public website that are not private.
  • And remove the website again, as soon as everybody we invited has downloaded the photos.



Aug 26, 2025 04:59 AM in response to Fibonaccii

Shared albums feature is great for close friends, but making them public websites lets anyone with the link view personal content. Photos app is meant to be private, and users can share what they want publicly on platforms like X or Instagram instead. Blurring private and public risks privacy, and without a list of public albums, users may lose track of what they’ve shared as public links. The best solution is to remove the ‘Public Website’ function and allow sharing only with selected people.


This is feedback and you should offer it here:


Feedback - Photos - Apple


But I will say this: If this feature causes you concern then don't use it. Other people might be quite content to use it. Why should it be removed in that case? Photos app is not "meant to be private"? Where is that written? It's a photo manager it is there to help the user do the things he or she wants to do, and not only what you want. This is in no way contradicts Apple's stress on privacy.

Aug 26, 2025 03:41 AM in response to léonie

Thank you for the reply, léonie.


I have both iPhone and Mac, I found out that the shared albums' status is not synced well on both sides. This may be a problem about iCloud. When I set a shared album as a public website on my iPhone, a public link will be created. But on my Mac, the checkmarks for the same options are not checked. Meanwhile, this situation may be reversed between the two devices. Sometimes after I tapped the public website button, the link won't appear down below. This means the Photos app syncing is not as good as Notes or Reminders.


Apple always uses privacy protection as a selling point, but in my opinion, this feature is totally on the contrary. For more information I mentioned above, here is an article in Chinese (you can translate it with google). May be you will know what I'm concerning about.

Remove the shared album as public website feature in Photos app may be a better protection for privacy.

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