Warning: Hidden GPS-Localisation trough Exif-Data in several Pictures

[hwj-d]

Sometimes, i don't know, whether some participants are aware showing their direct address from pictures they made with e.g. smartphones. With Googles Street-View, sometimes you can directly look in the front yard or at-home-windows. 

So, if somebody doesn't want that, please control your Exif-Data before upload pictures somewhere, and delete the GPS-Data inside. That's not special to iPhone-users, but mostly, in my opinion.

friendly greetings to everyone
 
H.-W.

[MarkS]

Yes, this is well known. It has been used by law enforcement to track and apprehend child predators. It has the unfortunate side effect of making it easy to track anyone.

That being said, I made a little (creepy!) hobby of finding out locations of people on YouTube, mainly vloggers, just by watching their videos and looking for site-specific information and correlating it with Google maps. I don't do this other than to prove how easy it is, and dear God, it is easy! I have found the exact home addresses of people by looking at signs, the inlet they live off of and other geographical features and a distinctive water tower among others, all features that no one would suspect to be used to locate them. I could do a Defcon talk on location hacking through images with what I've learned.

Pretty much, if you post an image or video on the internet and someone wants to find you, the EXIF data may be totally unnecessary.

[Red Squirrel]

There's usually an option to disable that in the smartphone.  I always turn it off.  If you really want to be safe you can screencap the picture then paste it in another program then save it.  That way you strip out any other info that is in there. (at least in theory?)

[MarkS]

There's usually an option to disable that in the smartphone.  I always turn it off.  If you really want to be safe you can screencap the picture then paste it in another program then save it.  That way you strip out any other info that is in there. (at least in theory?)

Download irFanView (an image viewer) and it has the option to display and edit the EXIF data directly.

[Ian.M]

Even date and time + the shadow length and angle of a vertical pole or similar that you can closely estimate the height of is enough to give away a rough position, within a few hundred Km, enough to narrow down your country, and in larger countries, region.   If you value your privacy, sanitize your image data!

[hwj-d]

Will give an example, why i noticed and wrote it here:
some people shows their desk with gear of zigthousands of $ at home, or in other case, inside a wooden outhouse in their garden. That's certainly not quite as good, that strangers knows what's inside.
That's quite equal, you have an address on your keychain for event of a loss. 
That`s not only knowing the address from someone.

[eugenenine]

There's usually an option to disable that in the smartphone.  I always turn it off.  If you really want to be safe you can screencap the picture then paste it in another program then save it.  That way you strip out any other info that is in there. (at least in theory?)

I have old pictures that I wish I knew when and where they were taken so I wouldn't turn it off at the phone and loose the data.  Also a screencap is usually a lot lower resolution.

Download EXIFtool, its a cross platform tool which you can script to strip out the data before you post.

[rdl]

Yet another setting which should be disabled by default, but isn't. I wonder why.

[bingo600]

As already mentioned , this could be the cure.

http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Blogs/Productivity-Sauce/Remove-EXIF-Metadata-from-Photos-with-exiftool
http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

Or on the phone
http://www.howtogeek.com/203592/what-is-exif-data-and-how-to-remove-it/

/Bingo

[eugenenine]

Yet another setting which should be disabled by default, but isn't. I wonder why.

The last few phones we have bought it was disabled by default, I had to turn it on.

[Ian.M]

What would be cool would be separate setting for capturing location data and for sending it.  If sending it is disabled, sending an existing picture should strip the EXIF data.  If you ever need to grab a photo for evidence, you may not have time to fumble around turning on geolocation, so its better to have it on by default.

Privacy is *YOUR* responsibility and requires constant vigilance and a disinclination to overshare.

[shteii01]

Basically it comes down to simple fact that "you" need to edit pics before you post them.

And while you are at it, make the pic file size smaller.  Don't post 1 MB pics.  Please.

[FreddyVictor]

this has caught alot of folks out !

reported a couple of years ago, Russian soldiers blog accidentally revealed he was in rebel occupied held eastern Ukraine

[hwj-d]

Basically it comes down to simple fact that "you" need to edit pics before you post them.
...

That`s the point. Thanks

[Kleinstein]

There are usually quite some extra data added to pictures, not only the GPS location. Often even a small preview is included which can take quite some size. So even if you cut a picture to size - the preview could still show the full picture (though in reduced size, z.B. 100x160 pixel). Some programs use the JPG internal preview, others make there own.

For smaller pictures files it is a good idea to reduce these extra data too.

[eugenenine]

exiftool -strip will get rid of all the extra fields.

[nctnico]

Pretty much, if you post an image or video on the internet and someone wants to find you, the EXIF data may be totally unnecessary.

I agree. I once had to track someone down based on a partial picture of a hotel room and an idea of in which part of a country to look for. It took less than 3 hours to get the person on the phone.

[hwj-d]

That someone can track and identify people, special with smartphones, that's an other big big problem.

As for photographers, they develop their RAW fotos with photoshop, lightrom etc. are aware of this anyway!  Thats only for people they upload their pictures directly from the phone. And yes, pure shrink doesn't solve the Exif-gps-problem! In general, i upload only photos that i control in that manner. Mostly i let the aperture-time-lens relations inside.

[rhysb]

The last few phones we have bought it was disabled by default, I had to turn it on.

this what I have found digital cameras that  have inbuilt GPS often have it disabled by default too.

I find this "feature" (depends who you ask) handy when say going on a long vacation, you can plot out your photos on a map on return. if you worried you can always strip out the exif before uploading your photos online.

[rx8pilot]

Yet another setting which should be disabled by default, but isn't. I wonder why.

I fell for this. Various OS updates re-activated the location data on the camera after I had turned it of - SUPER ANNOYED since I posted all kind of pics on the internet.

[avrishuvorlaz]

Well I just fired up Google Earth to see if I could locate Dave's address, knowing it would have solar panels on... but THEY ALL DO 

[mtdoc]

Basically it comes down to simple fact that "you" need to edit pics before you post them.

Only if you care whether someone knows where you live...

[rx8pilot]

Only if you care whether someone knows where you live...

I am at home all day with my pit bulls and cleaning all my firearms.

[mtdoc]

Only if you care whether someone knows where you live...

I am at home all day with my pit bulls and cleaning all my firearms.

Ha! You too?  Actually mine's a very protective Great Pyrennes, Akita, Malamute, Rotweiler mix..  And a 12 gauge is all I need. 

[hwj-d]

..  And a 12 gauge is all I need. 

that's the USA ...