The tech giant is criticised for automatically installing the OneDrive Photos app on some PCs without user consent, sparking privacy fears and prompting calls for better user control.
Microsoft is facing criticism after its OneDrive Photos app began appearing on some Windows 11 PCs without a clear opt-in step, including machines managed by businesses. The issue has irritated both home users and IT teams because the app is tied to the main OneDrive installation, which means it cannot currently be removed on its own. According to reports from Windows Latest and TechRadar, the software has shown up in the Start menu after OneDrive updates, even on systems where users had not actively chosen to install it.
The app is presented as a photo hub that brings OneDrive’s web and mobile experience to the desktop. Microsoft says OneDrive Photos is part of the broader OneDrive product rather than a separate download, and that it updates alongside the sync client. The app combines local pictures with images backed up to cloud storage and adds features such as a unified gallery view, memories and a People tab that groups faces using AI. The company also says the facial-grouping feature is cloud-based, opt-in and not used to train its AI models.
That reassurance has not fully settled privacy concerns. Microsoft’s own support material says the People feature uses face recognition to group similar images, may take time to process photos and is rolled out gradually, with consent required in some regions before processing begins. The company also notes that the groupings are not always accurate. Critics argue that the larger problem is not the feature itself but the fact that the app was pushed automatically, and in some cases landed on enterprise devices where it was not expected to appear at all.
Microsoft has now acknowledged that the business rollout was unintended and says it is working on a fix. In the meantime, users who have received OneDrive Photos are left with limited options: they can ignore it, or uninstall OneDrive entirely and lose the sync client with it. Microsoft has said a future update should allow OneDrive Photos to be removed separately, but that remedy has not arrived yet.
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