Taking a picture with Android or iphone reveals your location! WTH!

zorro1975 · 13-10-2011, 04:19

Guess this is the best section for this..

Special ABC report

Above is a video explaining how anyone can easily find out where you took a picture using your smartphone! It's crazy but geotagging is turned on by default on almost ALL smartphones! So next time you post a pic of your loved ones online think twice!

Dunno but I think it's retarded that you never get a warning about this when you buy that iphone or blackberry or any other smartphone

Hom3r · 13-10-2011, 10:08

Its called location and you can turn this setting off in the options, mine gave me a warning.

But I kept it on.

BenMcr · 13-10-2011, 10:32

It's turned off on the Galaxy S II (and was on my previous phone the HTC Desire)

---------- Post added at 10:32 ---------- Previous post was at 10:30 ----------

I also bought a proper camera that has GPS in it as I think it's a handy thing - much easier that trying to remember where a photo was taken 20 years after it was

Stuart · 13-10-2011, 11:02

Nothing new.. The iPhone has supported it since it had GPS. Also, any recent (say within the last 5 years) version of iPhoto) will actually let you view the location of any photo you have taken (as long as the image is tagged with the data) using Google Maps.

It's actually quite a handy feature that's also offered by a lot of professional cameras. Ben gives the example of how it could be useful to a person, but even companies find it useful. Imagine working in a busy news room, and you are asked to find footage showing a desert road in (say) Libya, but you have thousands of clips of Desert road (all of which probably look very similar).

mark1234 · 13-10-2011, 11:10

No big shock here. It's a bigger shock that you're surprised by it.

My WP7 splashed loads of very clear warnings over the screen that I had to choose to accept or decline before letting me use the camera. Even then it also has the option to strip out location info before uploading pictures to FB/SkyDrive.

danielf · 13-10-2011, 11:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuart

Nothing new.. The iPhone has supported it since it had GPS. Also, any recent (say within the last 5 years) version of iPhoto) will actually let you view the location of any photo you have taken (as long as the image is tagged with the data) using Google Maps.

It's actually quite a handy feature that's also offered by a lot of professional cameras. Ben gives the example of how it could be useful to a person, but even companies find it useful. Imagine working in a busy news room, and you are asked to find footage showing a desert road in (say) Libya, but you have thousands of clips of Desert road (all of which probably look very similar).

Or being in a city you don't know. Take a snap of your hotel, and then later use the geodata combined with navigation to get you back to the hotel.

BenMcr · 13-10-2011, 11:26

I just bothered to watch the video, talk about over-reacting

**Paul** · 13-10-2011, 11:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by zorro1975

Above is a video explaining how anyone can easily find out where you took a picture using your smartphone! It's crazy but geotagging is turned on by default on almost ALL smartphones! So next time you post a pic of your loved ones online think twice!

A little paranoid perhaps ?

Welshchris · 13-10-2011, 13:18

the only reason u should be paranoid is if ur at a place where u shouldnt be phaps?

TheDon · 13-10-2011, 14:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Welshchris

the only reason u should be paranoid is if ur at a place where u shouldnt be phaps?

Ah yes, the old "the only ones who have anything to fear of this law are those who have something to hide." argument.

Whilst I don't think this is an issue (android asks you when you set it up if it can use location info), the whole "I have nothing to hide" argument is frankly ridiculous and only has one logical outcome, total surveillance.

I have nothing to hide, but I also don't want people prying into my private life.

Pauls9 · 13-10-2011, 15:28

How many people also have their full name in the photo's EXIF data?

"Here's a pic of our family barbecue"

"OMG - we know your identity and where you live! You're at risk!"

Personally, I use a alias/screen name for my photos and decide on a case by case basis whether to include geo data. If it's relevant to know where the picture was taken, then include it, otherwise not. Admittedly, that requires a bit of knowledge and an appropriate tool.