I've heard the stories about when you post pics with your cell phone that it can be determined where the pic was taken. I finally have gotten up to speed with techology by recently getting a "smart" phone. Didn't take long to figure out the phone is smarter than I am. If I turn the GPS function off on the phone is ability to tell where the pic was taken turned off too? The reason I ask is that several years ago I published a bit too much info online and some parts were stolen off a truck I bought before I picked it up. I'd love to post more pics of what I'm doing on my truck but need to know if that is safe to do with my new phone or if I should take with my camera and post.

 

It's called geo tagging. I'd suggest Googling it and reading information about it. Here's a couple of sites to get you started:

I Can Stalk U - Raising awareness about inadvertent information sharing

How to find the location where a picture was taken | Harmari by LTAS Technologies

Digital photos can reveal your location, raise privacy fears - CNN

 

Thanks for the info. I will read up on it. I'm paranoid about posting anything now after getting my parts stolen.

 

Use the camera, it's a lot easier and better quality.

BTW, I google-imaged "bonus built truck" the other day and most of the images it pulled up were our trucks here on FTE...

 

You still need to know your camera as some of them are capable of geo tagging.

 

After reading those articles you posted links for I think I'll use the camera! I should be safe as as it is several years old and was not high end. I'm going to check it out though to make sure doesn't geo tag.

Kinda funny really that I'm worried about the phone/camera safety and I drove 500+ miles one way to attend Truckstock 2012 with my internet friends!

 

I Googled Silvertone Gray yesterday, and saw 32 pics from my build thread on the page...

 

Rob thanks for bringing this information to our attention. I checked my Droid and the location feature in the was on. I turned it off.

James, thanks for information. Very interesting stuff that I'd bet most people don't know or thing about. I know I've heard about this some time ago but just never thought about.

Ross, my phone is always with me and it takes better pictures than any digital camera I have. I can take a picture of the projects in my shop and later if I have a question I can zoom in on some of the smallest details. I'm amazed how sharp these pictures are.

 

Just a final word of caution. Photos can not only contain location, but also the time it was taken. Some people have had their houses broken into because the thief can tell from the photo they are out of town.

I have a friend in Italy who photographs for a hobby. He uses a camera and uploads his work to Picasa (Google +). If I click on 'Photo details' it includes a Google map of where the picture was taken.

 

I don't want to make you even more paranoid but I will only say do not buy a smart TV with a built in Web Cam.

 

Sounds like 1984, 30 years late!

Just think of all the government jobs this could generate, some one has to watch over us. Just ask the prez.

 

I said a long time ago: who would have thought "big brother" would turn out to be a 15yo with a cell phone camera?

 

Wow, I am blown away by this information. I will checking my phone to make sure the tracking feature is turned off. Thanks Rojak!

 

Only a fool believes 1984 ended on January 1, 1985.

I just watched a piece on CBS This Morning about how they are putting cameras on buses that not only record video, but sound as well. Then they went to a business that supplies devices and they were mounted on police cars, motorcycles, even a semi-truck. Basically, any public place is now fair game.

 

I wonder if there is a metadata removal tool for pictures. At work we sometimes run documents through a metadata remover to scrub all the info before sending it out. I would be very surprised if there wasn't one for pictures. I've heard of this but nerver really thought much about it until I looked at this thread. I looked at the picture properites on one of my pics and sure enought GPS coordinates were there.