[Cialug] Security issue with geotagging your photos

[Matthew Nuzum]

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 10:52 PM, Zachary Kotlarek <zach at kotlarek.com> wrote:

>
> On Mar 1, 2011, at 8:19 PM, Matthew Nuzum wrote:
>
> > This may seem obvious to you but believe me, it's not obvious to
> everyone.
> >
> > When you enable geotagging of your photos on your smartphone it may give
> strangers the ability to know exactly where you (and your kids or friends)
> like to hang out. You may want to consider disabling it by default.
> >
> >
> http://www.cybersalt.org/general-news/smartphone-pictures-pose-privacy-risks
>
>
> I think that is the wrong battle. Don't get me wrong -- I think controlling
> image metadata is important and people should be made aware -- but I think
> it's an awfully subtle thing to sell to people who are intentionally
> broadcasting their images on the Internet.
>
> For this to be a problem you have to already be exposing pictures of you,
> your cohorts, your surroundings and probably some bits of your behavior to
> the world at large. The fact that there are GPS coordinates in the photo
> just make your location easier to index, but that is far less data than
> you're exposing already with the image itself.
>
> I think the right answer is to only share images with people you explicitly
> want to see them. While that's contrary to the way that many image-sharing
> services work, and perhaps even contrary to the way people want to conduct
> themselves, it would all but eliminate the problem described here. It's also
> a consistent, easy-to-understand message about privacy, as opposed to some
> technical detail related invisible data your phone may or may not put into
> the private-data-rich photo you're already intentionally sharing with all of
> FaceBook.
>
>
I don't disagree, I myself am cautious about posting pictures, especially of
kids. However, by their very nature, photos ask to be shown around. Even
someone who is cautious will probably make mistakes.

I just downloaded a picture that I had uploaded to facebook and found the
exif data was all stripped. Can someone confirm that it is the exif data
that is important here? Anyone else care to confirm that facebook is
actually doing this?

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin, identi.ca and twitter

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -Benjamin Franklin
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