How People Broadcast Their Locations Without Meaning To

wjousts writes "Smartphones include geotagging features that many people aren't aware of, MIT's Technology Review reports. And it's not just in the obvious places: 'For example, by looking at the location metadata stored with pictures posted through one man's anonymous Twitter account, the researchers were able to pinpoint his likely home address. From there, by cross-referencing this location with city records, they found his name. Using that information, the researchers went on to find his place of work, his wife's name, and information about his children.'"

Comments

Privacy disinterest come home to roost

[dtmos]

The lack of interest in personal privacy is probably the 21st Century's social movement that most surprised me. If someone had told me in 1991 that in 20 years people would want to publish their personal photographs to the world, and announce to everyone literate when they would be out of town, I would have said they were nuts: They're obviously risky behaviors in which no thinking person would engage.

How wrong I was.

Re:Privacy disinterest come home to roost

[Anonymous Coward]

And yet, those very risky actions become fairly safe, based on the sheer number of people doing it. As they mention in the article, the sheer volume of information available makes it impossible to keep up with everyone. If someone wants to pick out one person from the stream, they face a very difficult tactic. It becomes Zebra security--having identified a target, there is nothing that gives that target much security. But as long as you are in the herd, it's likely not cost effective to try and pick someone off.