Web Photos That Reveal Secrets, Like Where You Live

Web Photos That Reveal Secrets, Like Where You Live

When Adam Savage, host of the popular science program “MythBusters,” posted a picture on Twitter of his automobile parked in front of his house, he let his fans know much more than that he drove a Toyota Land Cruiser.
Embedded in the image was a geotag, a bit of data providing the longitude and latitude of where the photo was taken. Hence, he revealed exactly where he lived. And since the accompanying text was “Now it’s off to work,” potential thieves knew he would not be at home.
Security experts and privacy advocates have recently begun warning about the potential dangers of geotags, which are embedded in photos and videos taken with GPS-equipped smartphones and digital cameras. Because the location data is not visible to the casual viewer, the concern is that many people may not realize it is there; and they could be compromising their privacy, if not their safety, when they post geotagged media online.
Mr. Savage said he knew about geotags. (He should, as host of a show popular with technology followers.) But he said he had neglected to disable the function on his iPhone before taking the picture and uploading it to Twitter.
“I guess it was a lack of concern because I’m not nearly famous enough to be stalked,” he said, “and if I am, I want a raise.”

Source: Web Photos That Reveal Secrets, Like Where You Live - Yahoo! Finance

I Can Stalk U - Raising awareness about inadvertent information sharing

~Lordbob

I think geotagging is great for personal collections (you can see exactly where your pictures were taken), but I can't fathom why Twitter and other social networking sites have not implemented a system that downgrades geotagging to regional data only. I mean, how many people want the whole Internet to know the exact coordinates of where they're standing?!

Reported Robert, and good suggestion, thanks.

BCXtreme said:

I think geotagging is great for personal collections (you can see exactly where your pictures were taken), but I can't fathom why Twitter and other social networking sites have not implemented a system that downgrades geotagging to regional data only. I mean, how many people want the whole Internet to know the exact coordinates of where they're standing?!

I would agree that is has really good uses, but it turns out it is enabled by default on phones! Though the way you suggest is good too.

~Lordbob

You can remove most of the tags by right clicking on them> Going to properties.
When ever you edit Photo in Photoshop and make a duplicate and save that, all things are rubbed off.

Only few Top notch Digital SLR camera has Geotag, apart from mobile cameras.

Yet, every camera puts an invisible digital signature, which is impossible to rub off; its needed and used only by top notch national security systems to find out the original photographer. Its out of reach of us.

Example: Say, Someone send a photo to newspapers or posted in blog, of a big international criminal, who is known to dead; claiming he is not dead. Countries may examine the photo, whether it was photoshopped or really taken, if really taken, the details.

Good topic no doubt. Thanks for sharing with others.

By the way, our web presence is always traced for security: Guru Lounge - 3D