Wound Photos on the Smartphone – When the Pressure Ulcer Ends Up in the Private Google Cloud

Validated facts

Care workers often photograph wounds for progress monitoring with work or private phones (BYOD). If automatic cloud backup (Google Photos, iCloud) is active, health images are uploaded unnoticed. This can trigger a notifiable data breach under Art. 33 GDPR.

In plain language

Security relevance & practical tip

Take photos only via protected care apps that store images directly in the care software and do not save them in the local gallery.

Primary source / reference

• Art. 33 DSGVO – Meldung von Datenschutzverletzungen
• Art. 9 DSGVO – Gesundheitsdaten