Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Cell Phone Photos Show Your Location!

Are you aware that the cell phone photos you share can show your exact location?  I wasn't until I saw a clip on our local news about it last night!
I couldn't find the clip I watched from our local news because I can't remember what channel I was watching but I Googled "cell phone photo tracking" and found this news clip which is actually better anyway.



I don't use the camera on my cell phone very often and I've only once shared a photo from my phone online.  I double checked my photo and as far as I can tell, the location is not attached (someone please let me know if I missed something!).  I'll definitely be more aware now though.

I did a little testing last night to see if I could find locations from cell phone photos.  I picked four random photos from this recent I Heart Faces challenge.  You'll be happy to know that I did not find any locations from those photos.  Either I'm dumb, those four people turned off their GPS, or it really isn't as easy as it looks.  Either way, I think people need to be aware of how they can be located.

This news clip does not tell you how to prevent your location from being shown with your photos.  If I remember correctly (from my news clip), you simply turn off the GPS tracking on your phone.  They said something about being able to turn GPS off and on for certain apps and phone features.  Check your phone manual or Google it for more info.

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3 comments:

Moments and Impressions said...

wow! I had no idea. My phone doesn't have GPS - it is an oldie.

Becca said...

Interesting that people are only now freaking out about this. Cell phones have been geotagging for years now :) It was my first concern when I got my smart phone - I use the "use my location" feature sparingly (like for apps that will find grocery stores or movie theaters, etc) and avoid using it for sites like Facebook, etc.

Ashley said...

Interesting. So weird everything you can do now, so I shouldn't be surprised. Hello old friend! Haven't stopped by in a while, so wanted to say hello!

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