steve in so la
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- May 9, 2006
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Here's something I came across that will be good to know -
When Adam Savage, host of the popular science program "MythBusters," posted a picture on Twitter of his automobile parked in front of his house, he let his fans know much more than that he drove a Toyota Land Cruiser.
Embedded in the image was a geotag, a bit of data providing the longitude and latitude where the photo was taken. He therefore unknowingly revealed precisely where he lived. And since his accompanying text was, "Now it's off to work," potential thieves knew he would not be at home.
Security experts and privacy advocates have recently issued warnings about the potential dangers of geotags, which are embedded in photos and videos taken with GPS-enabled smartphones and digital cameras. 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.
In Mr. Savage's case, he was aware of geotags, but had neglected to disable the function on his iPhone before taking the picture and uploading it.
Most people do not know about geotag capabilities and disabling the feature often requires navigating through several layers of menus until you find a "Location" setting, then selecting "Off," "Don't allow," or "Disable." Unfortunately, doing this can sometimes turn off all GPS capabilities, including mapping, so it can get complicated.
The charmingly named Web site, ICanStalkU.com, provides step-by-step instructions for disabling the photo geotagging function on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Palm devices.
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When Adam Savage, host of the popular science program "MythBusters," posted a picture on Twitter of his automobile parked in front of his house, he let his fans know much more than that he drove a Toyota Land Cruiser.
Embedded in the image was a geotag, a bit of data providing the longitude and latitude where the photo was taken. He therefore unknowingly revealed precisely where he lived. And since his accompanying text was, "Now it's off to work," potential thieves knew he would not be at home.
Security experts and privacy advocates have recently issued warnings about the potential dangers of geotags, which are embedded in photos and videos taken with GPS-enabled smartphones and digital cameras. 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.
In Mr. Savage's case, he was aware of geotags, but had neglected to disable the function on his iPhone before taking the picture and uploading it.
Most people do not know about geotag capabilities and disabling the feature often requires navigating through several layers of menus until you find a "Location" setting, then selecting "Off," "Don't allow," or "Disable." Unfortunately, doing this can sometimes turn off all GPS capabilities, including mapping, so it can get complicated.
The charmingly named Web site, ICanStalkU.com, provides step-by-step instructions for disabling the photo geotagging function on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Palm devices.
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