Photos taken from your mobile can reveal your address!

[Fergal]

People always need to be careful with posting their photos to places like FaceBook. But today is the first time I learned that photos taken from a GPS enabled device, such as a mobile phone, can actually include a geo-tag that can reveal your address.

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.

Read more here at the NY Times.

 

[Mr. Duck]

well, i dont really use my mobile camera so im alright, is there anyway to remove them do you think?

 

[fantanoice]

Oh geez, that's kinda unnerving.

 

[master412160]

That sucks, but we must be careful.

 

[MissTake]

Thanks, that's an unnerving but interesting piece of information...does FP retain these Geotags?

I'm just off to find out if my phone adds them, It's a new phone but I don't think it's technical enough, definitely worth checking though, thanks for the heads up 😉

 

[juststeven]

I use my camera on my mobile on travels and when we go up the woods and stuff so I'l be okay.

 

[Jonathan]

My phone isn't GPS enabled... that's interesting though

 

[Cloverfield]

Damn, mine is lol. I better be careful.

 

[Fergal]

Thanks, that's an unnerving but interesting piece of information...does FP retain these Geotags?...

We don't do anything deliberate to retain that data. However, we can't guarantee that the info is not contained within any uploaded digital image.

 

[Gimgak]

Crap lol I got a droid. Now off to find how to disable this 😛

 

[Tracy]

Wow that is a little freaky. Mine isn't GPS enabled, so I should be okay. I can't believe they'd make phones like that in the first place, if they were aware of people's safety.

 

[David]

Wow that is a little freaky. Mine isn't GPS enabled, so I should be okay. I can't believe they'd make phones like that in the first place, if they were aware of people's safety.

It's the user's responsibility to enable/disable any form of GeoTag settings, hence the reason why manufacturers send out manuals so users can familiarise themselves with the phone so they don't end up doing something they didn't expect.

Having GeoTag enabled isn't primarily a "bad thing". Flickr utlized the GeoTag and sets images of locations as per the long/lat. coordinates. It can be very useful for travelers looking for a specific location and can give Internet users a better picture of what a place looks like.

 

[Benjay]

That's freaky. I didn't know that it was possible.

 

[Wood]

How, can you find it out through a picture?

 

[fantanoice]

How, can you find it out through a picture?

H4x.

 

[InfiniteJest]

I believe the technical term is exif data.

 

[PlayOn]

My phone isn't GPS enabled... that's interesting though

either is mine. And I never use my camera on my phone since I have a way better digital camera to take my pictures 😛

but yes, its interesting alright that it can happen.

 

[about lee]

Ive just turned mine off 😀

 

[Justin]

Mine gives me the option to turn off geotagging.

 

[Gimgak]

Mine gives me the option to turn off geotagging.

Yeah all should, I've done that on mine now.