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The Hidden Security Risk of Geotags

Posted by timothy on from the process-of-elimination dept.

pickens writes "The NY Times reports that security experts and privacy advocates have begun warning consumers about the potential dangers of geotags, which are embedded in photos and videos taken with GPS-equipped smartphones and digital cameras. By looking at geotags of uploaded photos, 'you can easily find out where people live, what kind of things they have in their house and also when they are going to be away,' says one security expert. Because the location data is not visible to the casual viewer, the concern is that many people may not realize it is there; and they could be compromising their privacy, if not their safety, when they post geotagged media online."

7 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. This is why... by Darkness404 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is why upload services should simply just strip out the un-needed info of the pictures. The original pictures still have the sometimes useful geolocation data, but your Facebook pictures won't.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:This is why... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      After selling it to their advertising partners, of course...

    2. Re:This is why... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is why people shouldn't be so casual about publishing every detail of their personal life for the world to see. These micro-celebrity wannabes should wake up and recognize that their lack of privacy makes them easy targets.

    3. Re:This is why... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Would knowing, say, that the majority of interior shots (probably my home) are on one particular city block vs another really be worth that much more to an advertiser?

      Yes. They can correlate it with property records and figure out who you are, what bank you have your mortgage with, how much you paid for your house, when you bought it, your likely income level, if you are married (more than one name on the mortgage) and that's just from the primary property records search in some states. Start cross-referencing it with other databases and my guess is that you'll have no secrets at all.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  2. The Hidden Danger of Post Marks on Letters by Palestrina · · Score: 5, Insightful

    OMG, letters have post marks and tell what town the sender lives in!

    OMG, caller ID gives my phone number to people that I call!

    OMG, the Registry of Deeds lists my address and how much I paid for the house!

    OMG, the phone book list my name, phone number and address!

    We've been dealing with stuff like this for decades, right? I think the danger is more about the contents of your tweets ("I am on vacation") than the metadata ("I live here"). I can probably find your address if I wanted, even without Flickr metadata.

    Of course, metadata can lie as well. Maybe I want to say, "I have a big coin collection" in Twitter and put photos of it all over the place on the web, but with false geotag data to make it look like it came from someone else's home. Because of that risk, even those who do not use Twitter, or the iPhone or Flickr are also at risk. Gee. maybe we should just lock our doors at night.

  3. Re:ImageMagick and remove metadata by MechaStreisand · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yup, and it recompresses the image when you do so. See suggestions here for ways of stripping it without recompressing.

    --
    Disclaimer: IANAL. This post is, however, legal advice, and creates an attorney-client relationship.
  4. Masterminds by Cruciform · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There's a pretty big site dedicated to the growing of marijuana, where the users post pictures of their grow operations from behind the "protection" of proxies.
    Just for kicks one day I started checking their pictures. About 20 to 25 percent of them were geotagged. Some of those grows had hundreds, if not thousands of plants. So much for hiding behind a proxy. :)