I must agree that our social networks and camera enabled phones have made sharing many things in our life, very easy. It's great to share photos online, but are you sharing more than just images?
Your photo may actually contain hidden information that is called EXIF data. Most of that data includes, date and time the photo was taken, the model and serial number of the camera, and possibly the camera settings. Some digital cameras and camera phones automatically geotag photos. Is this something that you know about your phone or camera? The data stored in the EXIF data, is then uploaded with your photos when you upload to photo-sharing sites, such as Facebook, FLickr, etc.
Many people geotag their photos, which matches the photos with GPS data. Each photo is tagged with the location it was taken, which is pretty cool when you want to stick your vacation photos on a map. Navigation companies have started looking at this data. Garmin's nuvi2655T lets you download geotagged photos to the device. It will then direct you to where that photo was taken.
That is great for sightseeing trips, but what about criminals?
You could take a picture or two, of you son or, daughter participating in a school activity and with pride you label the photo and make comments about it when you've uploaded it to you social network site. Now the criminal has your child's name, what they look like and the location of the school. This is scary stuff.
Or, you've taken some photos, to show your friends, that great bargain you just got on EBAY, or your new theater system, with all the bells and whistles. Thieves now know about it, and where it is. And if you mentioned that you were going on vacation, they know when.
SORRY, DON'T PANIC...............YET!!!!
Photo navigation is still limited, and it appears on only a handful of devices. But, manufacturers are looking to expand into more popular sites like Flickr, and you may have plenty of personal photos there.
YES, THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO.......
Know exactly what geotagged is. Your trip to the ocean is fine, no harm there, but your kids playing in the backyard probably shouldn't be tagged.
Turning geotagging on and off is a pain, and easy to forget. It would be a better idea to edit EXIF data on your computer, so you can remove geotagging before uploading your photos.
There are many photo-editing programs that let you edit EXIF data. But finding the right tools can sometimes be daunting. There are several programs that make it easy. EXIF-O-Matic , XnView or Ifranview, or you can edit it right in Windows Expolorer with Microsoft Photo Info.
I don't want it to be said that I am not on the side of progress. I enjoy it and embrace many of the new things emerging in this day and age. I am just saying, to do your due diligence before uploading those photos.
There is that plus side to geotagging, in addition to mapping out my vacation route, as a Realtor I can take photos of my community, Bryan-College Station Texas, of all the great neighborhood parks, sans the kids, of course. There are a ton of photos of Texas A&M University to be taken, and geotagging would be a great boost as an introduction for all the incoming students and parents. Also, it is a great way to get acquainted with the neighborhood, before purchasing that dream home, or student lodging for the next four years.
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