I have numerous travel photos and have recently started using Picasa to label and tag (including locations, people, subjects, etc) photos. My photos are stored on local drive of my computer, not on an online web service - or at least, that's what I think.

A techie friend told me photos are loaded onto a Google server anytime anyone uses Picasa. He told me my photos are accessible to anyone. I thought I was working on my computer, just using the Picasa software as a management tool. I didn't think I was using a 'web album' - but, he said a web album is automatically created. He told me it's all there in the Google privacy policy.

Can anyone give me any information on this? I've gone back to the Google Picasa site and can't find this spelled out - one way or the other.

Thanks.