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EXIF data / smartphones / GPS – be careful!

Forums Life Computers, Gadgets & Technology EXIF data / smartphones / GPS – be careful!

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  • A heads up – all digital cameras, including those on smartphones, store something called EXIF data in the photo.

    99% of the time this is harmless and often useful – especially if you have an interest in creative photography. it stores lots of things like shutter/aperture, ISO setting, what lens/focal length you used, whether flash was used (the exact features depend on your camera).

    You can look at it with free software downloadable online as standalone packages or a browser package.

    But beware if you have a modern smartphone with a GPS reciever! Now this is often a useful thing as well, as you get maps when you are travelling – but the camera software often also stores the location of your photo in the EXIF data. Beware also, that some newer “travel” compact cameras and DSLRs have this receiver built in.

    There are times when you don’t want this to happen – so either

    • switch off geotagging
    • remove the exif data with software
    • or use a camera without GPS receiver….

    Otherwise you are handing over info to those who might oppose what you are doing – not just feds but (as the software to read the data is so easily available) anyone else who could grass you up if they disagree with your actions..

    if you want to post any pictures online just take a screenshot first so all the crap isn’t saved on it.

    @p0ly 437328 wrote:

    if you want to post any pictures online just take a screenshot first so all the crap isn’t saved on it.

    Or upload it to a hosting site that wipes EXIF Data – like Facebook.

    There’s others but I can’t remember which ones they are.

    facebook wipes it so you cant trace it in public domaine but what they do with the wiped data aint clear, so my suggestion is that photos with EXIF data should be treated with caution…..

    @!sinner69! 437338 wrote:

    facebook wipes it so you cant trace it in public domaine but what they do with the wiped data aint clear, so my suggestion is that photos with EXIF data should be treated with caution…..

    yep that is also my suspicion, as all photos have unique ID on FB it would be trivial to store the removed EXIF data in another table for genuine paying customers to have access too.

    There are in fact times when I don’t mind it being shown, I am happy to help others to take good photos and for the clever Japanese to use it to help make better cameras for all of us (which was why they invented it in the first place) but I’d rather take control of the data at source.

    (here is some more free software to check this data).

    ExifTool – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    General Lighting,
    I commend to remove metadata with softwares such as this EXIF remover — it deletes not only GPS info, but some other data which can be sensitive. And comparing with ExifTool, it has graphical UI.

    @MegaClubber 437814 wrote:

    General Lighting,
    I commend to remove metadata with softwares such as this EXIF remover — it deletes not only GPS info, but some other data which can be sensitive. And comparing with ExifTool, it has graphical UI.

    Great information guys. Thanks! Just purchased this EXIF remover.

    Jpegs can also store a lot of unwanted data about the picture in the file and this is also easily stripped out

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Forums Life Computers, Gadgets & Technology EXIF data / smartphones / GPS – be careful!