I don't know much about how the synchronization works, but if it worries you, un-synchronize!

What I want to communicate is something about the risks of relying on Flickr. Make sure you have backups of your images on external hard drives (xHD) as well as the folders on your HD. I was using Flickr for a number of years and liked it because it was good - until suddenly it was not! What happened is that I would sign in and not be directed to the page I had carefully set up. I was sent instead to a different page - one I had started and abandoned before starting the page I had been using. I was no longer recognized as the Administrator of my own page... None of the self-help topics fit this situation, so I could not find a way to fix it. Going onto the Community page and asking if there was a solution, I discovered there were many other people asking similar questions.

My last avenue to try to contact someone to help was to report it as abuse! There was a response, apparently from a real person, basically telling me to look at all the self-help and community pages. Having already described what I had done, I tried again, telling them that since Flickr had basically "hijacked" my page, this ought to qualify as "abuse" - by Flickr. I received another email, again suggesting I go to the areas I had already visited:

"Yahoo proudly offers help channels where you can find answers to many of your technical questions. While direct support for Flickr isn't available, there are several places to go for help:

"Flickr Community Forum

Yahoo Help Community Forum - A forum to search for and ask questions about specific Yahoo products.

Social Media - Find us on Facebook or Twitter."

I wrote again, this time repeating that I had already tried these places, and told them they had a "No Help Available" attitude. Always polite, always describing things clearly, getting nothing back... That is, not from a person. Here is their final response:

"We've closed your case as we believe we've fully addressed it.

If you still need help, you can contact us using the options available at: Yahoo Help Central. Thanks!

The Yahoo Customer Care Team

P.S. Any reply to this email will go unanswered as this email address is not monitored. But, we're happy to help you further via our website above."

No need to guess what I did - I switched sites and set up a whole new page. I already had a page on 500px, and found that a real person will answer questions! So my solution was to expand the number of pictures posted, and to organize them in Galleries (work just like the folders on Flickr). My old pages are still on Flickr, the one I had developed and the other one which I tried to delete. Their system allowed me to delete it, but instantly replaced it with another! It took a while to get my 500px page where it is now, because at the "free" level I can only upload 20 pages per week. But that's OK, I didn't want to do it all at once anyway! And I had no intention of putting every picture I have taken up there - not even all of the "best"...

So take care NOT to TRUST Flickr. Things go wrong on other sites, I am sure, but on Flickr there is no one to help, and you can lose access to the page you worked hard to develop.

Susan

I agree with Susan. Remember that Yahoo is being acquired which means that the future is very uncertain. Marissa Mayer may walk away or totter off into obscurity with over $200M in the bank including her $57M golden parachute, but Flickr users could be left high and dry. Hacking risk is low, but learning how to control your assets and how to make sure you have copies elsewhere is very important.

Yahoo! -which implies Flickr - is what our new president would describe as a 'failing internet company', and in this instance he would be correct. It may be possible to right the Yahoo! ship, but it isn't clear what may get thrown overboard in that attempt.

I’d appreciate your comments on this:

I have uploaded many images to Flickr by using the sharing function on IPhoto. (I don’t like Apple’s Photos and am not interested in organizing myself with Lightroom.) Now I am wondering if this approach is a convenient backdoor for hackers to enter my computer. The files are synchronized, which means that deletions on the computer albums will also cause deletions on the Flickr site and vice versa. So there seems to be a permanent link. I could probably avoid this by using the Flickr uploader.

I’m also wondering if it is risky to use Flickr at all –- considering that it is a Yahoo site, and Yahoo has been subject to extensive security breaches.

I’d appreciate your comments on this:

I have uploaded many images to Flickr by using the sharing function on IPhoto. (I don’t like Apple’s Photos and am not interested in organizing myself with Lightroom.) Now I am wondering if this approach is a convenient backdoor for hackers to enter my computer. The files are synchronized, which means that deletions on the computer albums will also cause deletions on the Flickr site and vice versa. So there seems to be a permanent link. I could probably avoid this by using the Flickr uploader.

I’m also wondering if it is risky to use Flickr at all –- considering that it is a Yahoo site, and Yahoo has been subject to extensive security breaches.

I’d appreciate your comments on this:

I have uploaded many images to Flickr by using the sharing function on IPhoto. (I don’t like Apple’s Photos and am not interested in organizing myself with Lightroom.) Now I am wondering if this approach is a convenient backdoor for hackers to enter my computer. The files are synchronized, which means that deletions on the computer albums will also cause deletions on the Flickr site and vice versa. So there seems to be a permanent link. I could probably avoid this by using the Flickr uploader.

I’m also wondering if it is risky to use Flickr at all –- considering that it is a Yahoo site, and Yahoo has been subject to extensive security breaches.