IntelligentIT: Before You Post Another Pic Online....Read This!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Before You Post Another Pic Online....Read This!

Owners of smartphones will be shocked to know that the simple act of taking a picture with their smartphone (or tablet) could provide enough data for criminals to find their exact whereabouts. Now if that isn't troubling enough, consider the increasing number of kids with smartphones who frequently post pictures to social networks, and think of the potential danger this threat poses. Now that you're freaked out, you're probably wondering how this is done.

The simple answer is geotagging. The not so simple answer is, when a camera takes a picture it stores information about the camera in a file called the EXIF or Exchangeable Information File. When GPS tracking or location services is enabled on smartphones it allows the user's geographic location to be found and used by Geosocial services like Foursquare. So how does this all tie into someone finding out your exact whereabouts using just a picture taken from a location services enabled smartphone?

The main problem is when metadata created by location services is attached to the EXIF file of pictures taken while location services is enabled. Contained within the metadata are things like latitude and longitude coordinates, city, state, etc., information of where the picture was taken. That information can then be transfered into various mapping apps that will yield the exact location of where the picture was taken; right down to specific rooms in a house.

The good news to this frightening tale is that this can be prevented by turning off location services before snapping a shot. It's important to know that disabling location services will prevent certain apps that depend on the service, so just disable the service prior to any picture you take and enable it afterwards so the apps using the service will function properly.