Metadata In Pictures

[Jega (OP)]

I was looking through the Pics thread and found something that needed to be noted.  Just to be clear the vast majority of pictures I checked were fine. I had to go back a bit to find an issue but there are some issues. In some of the pictures there is Meta data that includes the date the picture was taken, and the GPS location.

As a general rule if the picture is taken with a DSLR you will almost always certainly be fine and if you have a GPS on your DSLR you would know. 99% of the time this is only an issue if you take a picture with your cellphone (I tend to see it on recent iPhone models).

The solution is very easy; just disable location settings for the cameras on iOS and Android phones.  While I use an Android phone I’ve never used an iPhone and don’t want to give specific walkthroughs on something I have no familiarity with, but a simple google search with just the model of your phone and “disable location settings” should provide you with a very quick walkthrough to turn that off.

For photos on your computer you can see the Meta data just by right-clicking the photo and scrolling to “More Info” (on a Mac) or doing the same and then scrolling to “Properties” and then “Details” (on a Windows PC). On a Windows machine there will be a GPS area that displays Latitude, Longitude, and Altitude so you won’t miss it.

I highly recommend everyone disable location settings before posting pictures as it is a huge security risk to you! That will protect you going forward. As for pictures already posted, please, if you can remember any pictures you posted that you feel you want to check on, please do so. As for our end, any pictures that are found to have compromising information we will notify you. But please don’t wait for our notification! I’ve been sitting here for a couple hours and this is a very time consuming process.

Again, the vast majority of photos I’ve checked are totally fine, but not everyone. And in the world that we live in one is too much! So please be proactive. Disable location settings on your phone going forward before posting pictures and check any pictures you make have already posted that you feel could have compromising information.

Thank you!

[Z]

If you upload to imgur the exif data is automagically removed.  It saves the site bandwidth as well.

[Chip]

Bandwidth is really no issue as we are allowed 2 TB a month but what I do like a lot about your suggestion is it saves disk usage growth - attachments do not live in the database as they are simply normal flat files.

[Jega (OP)]

Uploading to imgur first is a good suggestion!

[dizzle]

Or strip the exif data before doing anything with the pic....

Personally I've got all that shit turned off on my phone and the camera/pictures doesn't have  access to the gps or anything else outside of literally the camera and the ability to write to the storage (save a picture)

[Bodytec]

I was looking through the Pics thread and found something that needed to be noted.  Just to be clear the vast majority of pictures I checked were fine. I had to go back a bit to find an issue but there are some issues. In some of the pictures there is Meta data that includes the date the picture was taken, and the GPS location.

As a general rule if the picture is taken with a DSLR you will almost always certainly be fine and if you have a GPS on your DSLR you would know. 99% of the time this is only an issue if you take a picture with your cellphone (I tend to see it on recent iPhone models).

The solution is very easy; just disable location settings for the cameras on iOS and Android phones.  While I use an Android phone I’ve never used an iPhone and don’t want to give specific walkthroughs on something I have no familiarity with, but a simple google search with just the model of your phone and “disable location settings” should provide you with a very quick walkthrough to turn that off.

For photos on your computer you can see the Meta data just by right-clicking the photo and scrolling to “More Info” (on a Mac) or doing the same and then scrolling to “Properties” and then “Details” (on a Windows PC). On a Windows machine there will be a GPS area that displays Latitude, Longitude, and Altitude so you won’t miss it.

I highly recommend everyone disable location settings before posting pictures as it is a huge security risk to you! That will protect you going forward. As for pictures already posted, please, if you can remember any pictures you posted that you feel you want to check on, please do so. As for our end, any pictures that are found to have compromising information we will notify you. But please don’t wait for our notification! I’ve been sitting here for a couple hours and this is a very time consuming process.

Again, the vast majority of photos I’ve checked are totally fine, but not everyone. And in the world that we live in one is too much! So please be proactive. Disable location settings on your phone going forward before posting pictures and check any pictures you make have already posted that you feel could have compromising information.

Thank you!

I just tried to check the one pic I posted and could not see if location was on there but I think I do have location services turned on so could you check pg 66 my pic please?

[Jega (OP)]

You're fine. I've been going through every pic on the pics thread, but it's taken me a while. I should have all of the pics thread checked up in a couple days, and if you don't receive a PM from me you had nothing to worry about.