Little secrets that self-shot photos tell the world

Global Positioning System satellite technology or GPS is embedded into so many of the devices we use today for location purpose that we sometimes take it for granted.

From using it to find our way to places when we are lost to getting directions to that new trendy restaurant, we no longer even though it’s a valuable tool in our daily routine.

It can help you get where you need to go, but it could also bring unwanted predators straight to your doorstep.

One use of GPS is geotagging, the process of attaching location information to content such as a photograph or video when you shoot and upload it to Facebook or other social media platforms with the location of your whereabouts. It is one of the components that make our photos more “social.”

Geo-coordinates are often also reported to apps running on a cell phone, such as Angry Birds. When you or your children are playing the Angry Birds game, one could easily tell where you are playing in your house, in a restaurant, pub and so on.

In addition to location, the photo or video you take might also include elevation, bearing, distance, and even the name of a restaurant or show nearby landmarks that could identify when and where the photo was taken.

POSSIBLE DANGERS

Today, everyone who uses social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram is most likely utilising this technology in some form — whether they realise it or not.

While it is seemingly harmless, with every photo they post, there are possible dangers that users may not be aware of to which they expose friends, family members and themselves.

Fortunately, many social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter scrub location data when you upload photos to the sites.

But the only way to be sure GPS data is not embedded in your photos is to unlink location services from your phone’s camera.

For example, if you take a photo of some event in your house which shows your children and a few pricy items that you own and upload the photo, it is possible that someone could review the photo and get to know where you live and what your children and some of your possessions look like.

Geotagging is accurate to up to 15 feet.

If you upload another photo of an event that shows you are away from home, burglars could get to your house and break in since that they assume that there may be no one in the house.

Stalkers could also use this information to do all manner of things now that they know your address.

To turn Location Services off on an iPhone, for example, you click on Settings. Scroll down and click on Privacy.

There is a switch where you can turn Location Services off completely or turn them on and off for each application as you wish. When you turn it off for the camera, the photos you take will not be geotagged.

The geo-tagging function is not always bad. It can help arrange your photos and videos by when and where they were taken on the map of the world and help you tell your story.

Since the majority of people have no idea that the location of their images is being tagged, the rule of the thumb is not to publish photos directly from your phone or if you plan to publish photos taken with your phone, convert them to a PNG file format and publish them from your desktop computer.

Don’t post on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media service from your cell phone. If you do, change the permissions of your cell phone to not report GPS coordinates to these applications by disabling Location Services before taking the photos.

Sam Wambugu is a monitoring and evaluation specialist. Email: [email protected]