Geotagging: pictures you take track you

[Ellipse]

Now, we love Twitter and posting photos of our lunch, however, we don't feel that enough people realize what kind of data they are posting, albeit inadvertantly. By posting this information, they are allowing their movements to be recorded and analyized by anyone: from a government to a nosy neighbor. After analyzing your photos, someone could find out:

* Where you live
* Who else lives there
* Your commuting patterns
* Where you go for lunch each day
* Who you go to lunch with
* Why you and your attactive co-worker really like to visit a certain nice restaurant on a regular basis

With the proliferation of smart phones that contain GPS locator technology inside, the cameras in these devices are already equipped with the specialized hardware to automatically add geolocation information to the pictures at the time they are taken.

Most people don't realize that the action of automatic geotagging takes place on their smart phones, either because it is enabled by default, not exposed the user as an option, or was asked and then forgotten. As a result, individuals often share too much information about their location, right down to the exact Latitude and Longitude when snapping photos with their smartpphone and posting them online.

From "I Can Stalk U": http://www.icanstalku.com/how.php

There's also explanations to disable geotagging on your smartphone.

 

[D69]

Err I thought I posted it already somewhere.
Never mind thou , good reminder.
Also I learned quite a nice program to watch how it all works with meta-data in photos.

It is ExifTool by Phil Harvey url: __http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

So you can literally check your own photos before posting them.
Also keep an eye on a built in thumbnail because thats how a photo can be restored after author crops it.
Meta-data is very dangerous so be carefull with posting you own photos , especially photos made with a mobile phone that has built it GPS device - doesn't matter if it is triangulation based GPS or standard GPS - IT WILL STORE LOCATION DATA

 

[Keit]

You can tag or track the body, yet the soul remains elusive. :)

 

[rs]

You can tag or track the body, yet the soul remains elusive. :)

Sorry, I'm missing your point... The original point being made seemed to be more towards the issue of using meta-data in pictures as a way of either tracking somebody or for stalking them. Either way, it seems that one should take casual steps to avoid leaving behind a trail of bread loaves (instead of just crumbs).

 

[Keit]

You can tag or track the body, yet the soul remains elusive. :)

Sorry, I'm missing your point... The original point being made seemed to be more towards the issue of using meta-data in pictures as a way of either tracking somebody or for stalking them. Either way, it seems that one should take casual steps to avoid leaving behind a trail of bread loaves (instead of just crumbs).

Yep, you are right, of course. :) It was a misguided attempt at humor. Sorry for the noise.

 

[Scottie]

This is one of those "new technologies" that I think people don't actually think about enough.

All things being equal, it is not inherently evil. Problem is, in the world we live in, geotagging absolutely is being used for nefarious purposes. It's like Facebook. I guarantee you that Facebook did not become popular because it was a great idea. It became popular because they got funding from "venture capitalists", which as we all know is a nice way of saying "alphabet soup agencies".

And everyone just excuses it with statements like, "I have nothing to hide, so why should I care? Hey, wait a minute! Why do YOU care? Do you have something to hide?!"



Oh well.

I like my cellphone. It has no bluetooth, no WiFi, no camera, no GPS, no memory card, no USB port.... it's just a phone! What a concept.

 

[Tigersoap]

Yep, you are right, of course. :) It was a misguided attempt at humor. Sorry for the noise.

I thought it was funny :)

 

[Risen]

You can tag or track the body, yet the soul remains elusive. :)

I guess I missed the humor but I found it illuminating. The "devil" knows where I am all the time anyway. He does not need a cell phone to track me.

I did find the information interesting, Ellipse, thanks for sharing it. :)

 

[rs]

Yep, you are right, of course. :) It was a misguided attempt at humor. Sorry for the noise.

Well... not so much misguided as (at least in my case that is) unsuccessful. ;)
[quote author=Mr. Scott]
I like my cellphone. It has no bluetooth, no WiFi, no camera, no GPS, no memory card, no USB port.... it's just a phone! What a concept.
[/quote]
Wow, just a phone, who would have thought...

 

[Keit]

Yep, you are right, of course. :) It was a misguided attempt at humor. Sorry for the noise.

Well... not so much misguided as (at least in my case that is) unsuccessful. ;)

Understood. And I thought I was so witty. :)

 

[mabar]

This is one of those "new technologies" that I think people don't actually think about enough.

All things being equal, it is not inherently evil. Problem is, in the world we live in, geotagging absolutely is being used for nefarious purposes. […]

I like my cellphone. It has no bluetooth, no WiFi, no camera, no GPS, no memory card, no USB port.... it's just a phone! What a concept.

Maybe they just think they are safe … being from Mexico and where there are quite a lot of kidnappings of all kinds, you never know for sure where the hit will come from. They don't seem to notice that not just their friends are watching.

I do registered to some similar … to be part of if, but had never used it.

I do too have just a cellphone, do not need more and do not want to need more either, most of the time I have it switched off, only when it is necessary I turn it on, and that's it like once a week? at most!! … people around me had complained about it, as if it is my obligation to have a cellphone.

Our government last year obliged us to register our personal information to them in order to allow us to have a cellphone, justifying the action for our benefit, they said … supposedly they can track much better the organized crime … riiight!

You can tag or track the body, yet the soul remains elusive. :)

I found it quite hilarious too, it reminded me of indigenous people, they don't want to pose on photographs, they think their soul are taken away.