A friend Emailed me with this information. Not being smartphone savvy, I had no idea that geotagging has to be done with great care.
You’ve got a great new job offer in another town, so you’re selling your old couch, washer, dryer and fridge. You snap a few pictures and post them on the internet small ads, advising people that pickup can be arranged after 7 p.m.
But those shots you uploaded may contain more than pretty pixels -- they can actually give a potential criminal all the information he needs to steal your goods when you’re not at home. How? When you take a picture with a digital camera or smartphone, the device may embed GPS coordinates. Users can match those coordinates to the street view on Google Maps to target a precise location.
In fact, in a paper presented in August 2010, authors Gerald Friedland and Robin Sommer demonstrated the ease with which they could find photos on internet small ads sites, match them with Google Street View maps, and locate the photo’s position to within 1 meter of accuracy. If that sounds a little too close for comfort, read on to learn how to protect yourself.
1. Know what your camera is recording.
Yes, it’s boring to read an instruction manual. But you want to know what information your camera or smartphone is recording in your photos. Try conducting an online search such as “[your specific model name/number] + geotagging” to quickly find out what information is included in your photos. And bear in mind that even with geotagging disabled, your camera will capture a lot of other information. In addition to latitude and longitude coordinates, data can include altitude, bearing, distance and even place names.
2. Know when to use geotagging.
Sometimes, you want all that extra information recorded in your photos. If you’re witnessing a public or an historic event -- a concert, an inauguration -- or recording a trip around the world for posterity, geotagging can be helpful. When you’re looking over your photos later, you’ll know exactly where you were standing when the president was sworn in, or if those underground caves were in Gibraltar or Greece.
3. Know when to disable geotagging.
You should disable geotagging and strip out excess information if the photo shows a location you don’t want to share with everyone. This could be your home, your children’s school or a similar location.
4. Consider the photos you’re sharing.
Even with geotagging disabled, you should be aware of the photos you’re sharing. If you’re posting a picture of your kids in front of your house and your street number is clearly visible in the picture, stripping out metadata won’t fully protect you. Use common sense and monitor your settings on social networking sites so that you’re only sharing information with people you fully trust.
5. Learn how to disable geotagging.
“The setting to enable and disable this information will be different for every camera, so search online for your specific camera model. You can also visit ICanStalkU.com for step-by-step instructions for disabling geotagging on Android phones and the iPhone.
6. Monitor photos other people post.
If you’re tagged in a photo on a social networking site, make sure it doesn’t contain any information you don’t want associated with your name. Facebook automatically strips out extra information from photos uploaded from computers, but it may include some smartphone data. Other sites have different policies, so check the terms of service on the different sites you use.
Geotagging can be a useful tool when used wisely. But like everything else on the Internet, it should be used purposefully and only when you understand exactly what information you’re making available to others.
