Thread in question.
I was looking into Google Photos replacements while on my way to replace several other apps and saw that ente was recommended here. It seems interesting given the scope of the comment here. That being said, it’s been a few years. Is it a better option now? I’m interested in general, but want to make the right choice if I’m going to put the time in.
lol that reddit comment again… seriously wonder how much harm that has done to Ente by now.
But see the stickied comment in that post:
Mod Note: Much of what was published in this thread is misinformation, and not accurate. Ente has been audited: Ente successfully completes a security audit and the company operates from the US now.
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I looked right past it holy cow… thank you! Ente it is!
WTF is this Reddit thread, who is the author (AliceTuring) and did Ente sue her? They should because what Alice wrote is huge, wall-long pile of defamatory statements. Nothing less of it.
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This “Alice Turing” account looks like someone’s attempt at an inflammatory ChatGPT bot lol. Even has an ai-looking pfp. Like who puts a picture of themselves on their Reddit account? I guess not tho since it was 3 years ago before ai got convincing enough to pass as a human.
Mod Note: Much of what was published in this thread is misinformation, and not accurate.
Ente has been audited: Ente successfully completes a security audit and the company operates from the US now.
OMG this has done more to destroy Privacy Guides reputation than anything else I have ever seen.
What do I know about Ente to make such an statement? Nothing, absolutely nothing, but Ente does. So let’s see Ente’s answer:
- We updated our terms to address the issue
- We are in India, yes, but the lawyers say it’s ok
- Gotta talk to our lawyers to know wth you’re talking about. Edit: well, let’s just say we updated our terms again
- As of this comment, we abandoned the supplier you mentioned.
It seems like Ente acknowledged all the “misinformation” and even partially addressed it where they felt necessary/possible. So… Yaiks!
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Ente acknowledged all the “misinformation”
We did not acknowledge misinformation.
Ente has always been end-to-end encrypted. We have been externally audited. We are fully open source. If you still have a problem, you can self-host for free.
I’m grateful to the mods for adding a warning to the thread, and I hope someday we can remove it altogether. Over the years I’ve spent a disappointing amount of time responding to FUD, instead of building Ente (here I am, doing it again), and I sincerely wish the noise would stop.
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I was seriously considering Ente Auth, but that thread dampened my enthusiasm.
Even though you say most of it is misinformation, it’s still a bit concerning.
Is Ente Auth externally audited ?
Thanks 
externally audited?
Auth is built on the same primitives as Photos (Architecture) and the server that serves both has been audited.
that thread dampened my enthusiasm
Sad to hear that.
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Thank you for the links.
I’ll give it a try for some time. 
Did the Reddit comment say you were not audited? No
Did the Reddit comment say you were not e2ee? No
The comment pointed:
-
two issues with the privacy policy, which you acknowledged by changing the policy in both instances
-
two location issue, with a fact (which is true, you are, or were, in India) and an opinion (India sucks for privacy), which you disagree with of course but even then acknowledged you were thinking of addressing but “well, it’s too hard”…
-
The privacy invading solutions that you acknowledged by dropping one of them.
So, if any one wants a reason not to trust Ente, it’s not the Reddit comment, it’s the lying you’re just doing.
If anyone is ever considering Ente, I invite you to read the Reddit thread, the comment in question, Ente’s answer there, and the post I’m replying to, and assess of this person is being honest or not.
Edit: grammar
I do not wish to dissect the thread again, the bits you mentioned are the parts where we acknowledged the criticism constructively.
The rest of it is misinformation, which we did not acknowledge. Scanning the user’s profile will put the hate in context: https://www.reddit.com/user/aliceturing/
honest
The community is better off without drama, so I will no longer engage.
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That’s the thing.
My first post was talking about the mods characterizing criticism as misinformation. Note that I spoke of it being bad to PG’s reputation, not Ente’s.
Acknowledging and addressing the points raised actually reflected positively on Ente. Your answer here did not.
Here is my take on that thread:
Leaving the politics polemic behind, now that Ente can be self-hosted is it a better featured option to Immich? Is this updated in the tools section?
lol
Well, you should note that the stickied post was posted 2 years later. This is because the thread (and specifically the comment from u/aliceturing) was being shared very frequently at that time as if it was currently true. This is in fact misinformation when it’s being shared in this context, and the note was to warn people about that behavior.
Maybe it could be explained better, but I don’t think people really care about these old Reddit threads anymore anyways.
edit: I will update the comment anyways to make the context more clear.
Please note: The criticism shared in this thread has either been addressed by Ente or was simply incorrect. I’m pointing this out because this post continues to be shared as if all of these problems are currently true, unfortunately.
Ente has been a huge contributor in the open-source privacy software landscape, to the point where their services can even be self-hosted. They have also been very responsive to community feedback on our forums and elsewhere. Our community was happy to recommend Ente after thorough review.
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Continuing the discussion from Should Ente Auth really be recommended? Particularly the E2EE:
Not wrong per se, but the founder himself said his mission is to become THE photos app, so the 2FA is just a side gig.
Auth’s development has been very consistent so far, and since Ente has a clear business model, there is less risk of them selling out, like what happened with Raivo. I also think they understand that they currently have the best cross-platform 2FA app on their hands, which can also help attract potential customers for their photos app, so I think it is only likely that they will continue improving the Auth app in the future as well.
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Agreed, but just use passkeys?
Yes, but most sites don’t yet support them, so it will probably still take many years before we don’t need TOTP anymore.