Web Photos That Reveal Secrets, Like Where You Live

[TLynnHughes]

If you have an iPhone, even a 3Gs that has the updated software, if you open your Photos, at the bottom it will have a little globe icon called Places. Click on Places and it will open Google Maps with all your picture locations pinpointed.

It's not completely accurate. I took 5 pictures at my house. The pins are in 5 different locations. Guess it depends on what satellite I'm hitting when I take the picture.

Still kind of scary. And thanks for the info, Andy. I had NO idea.

T.

[gregthehand]

On my iPhone it asks if I want to enable GPS when taking pictures when you first get it. I just chose no so it doesn't embed the data into the pic.

[PUCKER]

I tried a few pictures (all taken with my iPhone 3) and most of them did not show the map location, but a few did.

[gabe]

We all like to take pics of our firearms, perhaps with our GPS-enabled cellphones - but we might also be letting people know whereabouts we live, too.

There was a story last year about iPhone privacy leaks. A young woman took revealing photos of herself and sent them to someone she met online, who shared them with other people. Someone noticed she took the pictures with an iPhone and looked at the exif data. They matched the address to public records and posted her name and address. Then they, or someone else who saw the photos, mailed the photos to her parents. The parents blew up and it made the news.

[Abraham]

Are the discussed security issues the same for pre-paid phones?

I carry one with me for emergencies, seeing no reason to invest in something I rarely use.

(I've wondered without researching if my el cheapo pre-paid has a GPS in it...? - anyone have a clue?)

[lonewolf]

I don't have a "smart phone". Just a stupid phone. I don't even know where it is much of the time

[Kythas]

Here's a URL that will allow you to upload an image and it will show you all the data in the pic - and automatically bring up Google Maps to show you where it was taken.

http://regex.info/exif.cgi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I used that to check a pic of my dog taken on my wife's iPhone - and it brought up our old house exactly

Didn't show any location on Google maps for me on any pic I tried. I used pictures taken from my old iPhone 3G and my new Droid HTC Evo. GPS was on for both phones when the pics were taken (my GPS is always on).

[Kythas]

I turn my Droid's GPS on and off as needed because it's a battery hog, so I turn it off after using to preserve the battery. Perhaps I had it off when I uploaded those images too.

TAM, check out http://www.seidioonline.com/. They make aftermarket batteries for Droid phones that greatly extend the battery life. I couldn't be happier with mine. I can go days without recharging with everything on.