Geo-tagged pics

[Ozykioti]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum business so forgive me if this subject has been discussed. I have just realized that photos taken on an iPhone or most smartphones with gps automatically have the gps coordinates embeded within the file. It is very easy for anyone to get this info and pinpoint the exact location of where the photo was taken. I think this could be dangerous if someone likes what they see and want it for themselves especially considering most tractors of the same make tend to share keys!
There were a spate of tractor thefts recently in country Victoria where the crims knew of the shared key thing and stole some very large machinery. So it's not to hard to see that the gps info could be used to track down the location of our pride & joy. The iPhone can be set to leave this info out. I'm not sure what others think of this or if they care, but as I have only just learnt of this I thought I should at least make it known.
Cheers Liam

 

[s219]

I normally postprocess all my images, to make them a more reasonable size for the forums. As a result, the EXIF location record is stripped out. I think most people process their photos somehow, even if it's just part of upload/download/sync. I suppose the real problem would be from people who post directly from their device.

 

[Tollster]

Information like that also brings in the world to those noce areas,many leave trash and destry once pristine areas, not all, but some. Its one more reason not to release it.

 

[Ozykioti]

Yes tollster I think there is a lot of downsides to this. With the amount if people using smartphones and not realizing that this function even exists it's likely that the crims will be using this to window shop and most likely already are. Same with "secret" favorite places as you suggest. Eg; you find a nice fishing hole or secluded camping spot, upload a pic to wherever suddenly the whole world knows how to get there. Not to mention personal safety issues, I just think with our high tech approach to doing things these days, it's easy to forget or not even know the implications of a simple innocent thing like sharing a photo over the web.

s219 has a point with processing the pics on a pc before uploading you can strip the gps info from the file. But a lot of people myself included are uploading directly from their device and unless the gps function is off BEFORE the pic is taken, they are unwittingly revealing more info to the world than they might like.

Now where is my tractor? I need some seat time : )

 

[MasseyWV]

Embedding GPS coordinates within the EXIF image data, more commonly known as geotagging, is one of the most dangerous ideas ever conceived. Never upload an image to the internet unless it's geotag and other revealing EXIF data has been removed.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2vARzvWxwY]Smartphone pictures pose privacy risks - YouTube[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li8UCrQvg0k[/ame]

 

[Ozykioti]

Wow massey, thanks for posting the links to the videos. That's some scary stuff right there. I did a quick search on the web before starting this thread and surprisingly wasn't as much on there as I thought. I hadn't heard of this before but I don't ever watch the news or get the paper much anymore so I'm completely out of the loop. When I realized it was happening & asked people that I know about it,no one had thought about or heard of it & some of them thought I was weird for worrying about it.

 

[teg]

I *was* wondering about your other threads about removing photos of your tractor... I need to check mine to see if they are "geotagged". I knew of geotagging and I know that my camera does it... but didn't give it much of a thought.

 

[Ozykioti]

Hey teg, glad I'm not the only one. I will repost my tractor photos once I've remove the EXIF data.

And here they are.

 

[dirt ditch]

For anyone interested, I have been using a program called GeoTag Security to remove geotags from photos I upload to the net. You can remove tags from an individual photo or scan an entire folder to remove tags. It removes the latitude - longitude coordinates and replaces them with repeating gibberish numbers. The free version is manual (photo or file), the pro version can be set to remove tags automatically from photos added to a file. It's easy to use and works great.


Geotag Security | Unknown dangers of sharing photos online and how to get protected

 

[teg]

Geotag Security | Unknown dangers of sharing photos online and how to get protected

Thanks :thumbsup: