The big creepy eye opens for criminals and terrorists!

[ROGER4314]

I read a Texas State Information Bulletin entitled "Geotagging: Risks and Precautions" that gave me a weird, creepy feeling. The bulletin covers new technology that embeds geographical identification into photographs, video, websites and SMS messages.

Newer cell phones including "Smart Phones" have GPS capability which automatically embeds GPS locations into pictures taken with the devices. Because geotags are embedded in the "metadata" of the photos, casual users may not be aware that the information is present.

To support concern about this, in Phoenix, Arizona, a CD was found during a traffic stop that contained GPS locations of the local LEO residences. It is concluded that criminals have already begun to use that GPS data for illegal activities.

This brings up some disturbing possibilities. The sweet photos your kids are posting on Facebook contain GPS coordinates so a pervert can find them.

Posting photos of your expensive toys can let a crook find exactly where the goodies are located.

People who want to harm an LEO can get target locations through the Internet posting of their kids and family.

And finally, for those of us who despise the interference with our liberty from spook types in government, we now have a new concern about their information gathering.

The article did show ways to turn Geotagging "OFF" on Smart phones and icanstalkyou.com is listed as a reference. I couldn't find the information on the site. Maybe someone could locate it and post the info.


Flash

 

[MR Redneck]

Good Lord, whats next! ??

 

[SIG_Fiend]

You want to know what's completely F'ing hilarious about this. There is a very simple way to completely eliminate all this:

-Open Picture, full screen
-Press "Print Screen" button on top right of keyboard
-Open MSPaint or other similar program
-Press "Paste"
-Select "Save As"
-You're done, no location data on new image LOL

 

[Pendox]

You want to know what's completely F'ing hilarious about this. There is a very simple way to completely eliminate all this:

-Open Picture, full screen
-Press "Print Screen" button on top right of keyboard
-Open MSPaint or other similar program
-Press "Paste"
-Select "Save As"
-You're done, no location data on new image LOL

Actually, there is a much simpler way to completely eliminate all this - just use this free tool to remove meta-data from jpg. It can clean multiple photos at once.

 

[ROGER4314]

The site icanstalkyou.com shows how to shut off the GPS location tagging in their cell phones. The scary part of this is that people are posting pictures of their homes, family members and assets without knowing that the posted pics contain embedded GPS data.

The bulletin I read was from the State Of Texas directed to LEO's as a warning that family postings on Facebook etc are actually providing data on how to locate them. The situation in Phoenix where they confiscated the CD loaded with personal data about LEO's is pretty chilling!

Flash

 

[Texan2]

i disabled that option on my blackberry the day i bought it

 

[pawncop]

We just got an alert from DPD regarding the incident in Az. There is so much info available it isn't funny. This one of the reasons I'm not on Facebook and don't post pictures.

 

[MR Redneck]

What feature do you turn off in a cell phone to eliminate that crap?

 

[outdare]

Here is a link to a article on geotagging I found. To bad it is in the NY times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/technology/personaltech/12basics.html?_r=2&src=twr