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Thread: Beware - GPS location stored in pictures

  1. #1

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    Default Beware - GPS location stored in pictures

    Hi Guys,

    This has probably been discussed before but i couldn't find it that quick. All digital cameras, including those on smartphones, store something called EXIF data in the photo. 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). But beware if you have a digital camera or smartphone with a GPS receiver! 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.

    Worst case scenario is that you have a huge farm and a nice marijuana growing operation going on. It will be easy for authorities to locate your grow area from just one picture. If you live in a city it's less of a problem because GPS is accurate within 10 to 50 feet.

    Some websites like facebook wipe it automatically when you upload pictures. I don't know if thctalk does this as well but it might be something to consider.

    How to delete exif data?

    -Switch off geotagging
    -Remove the exif data with software (i always use easy exif delete)
    -Make print screen of the picture
    -Or use a camera without GPS receiver....


    Any other ideas?

    Robert

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  3. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by robertbergman View Post
    Hi Guys,

    -Remove the exif data with software (i always use easy exif delete)
    i always use that software too. does the job nicely.

  4. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by robertbergman View Post
    How to delete exif data?
    [...]
    Any other ideas?
    JPEG & PNG Stripper: http://www.steelbytes.com/?mid=30
    PNG Optimiser: http://psydk.org/PngOptimizer.php

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  6. #4

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    This is true, so on iPhone what I do is I go to setting,privacy, location, and I turn all of them off cause I never know lol. When I need my phone for GPS is only when I travel so it's no big deal. Then ill even turn every apps access to my photos as well before I upload them.

  7. #5
    Friday Guest

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    Just turn ur phone to aeroplane mode in settings before u take any of ur pics then no info can be stored of ur location in the pics.


    Friday
    https://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-foru...tyliee-#128523

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  9. #6
    WanderinBloke Guest

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    I tend to open pics in photoshop, resize then save as a new image. I'm hoping no exif data would be sucked through?

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    Quote Originally Posted by WanderinBloke View Post
    I tend to open pics in photoshop, resize then save as a new image. I'm hoping no exif data would be sucked through?
    I'm pretty sure it keeps it, and that it adds quite a lot of its own metadata.

    When I export PNG or JPEG from Photoshop, I always run it through one of the apps I linked above (it's quite surprising how much smaller the files get sometimes).

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    Location services/GPS switched to off for camera. Wasn't there a sticky on this subject?

  12. #9
    jimmi420 Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by Anonymiss View Post
    Call me thick, but were woulda i come across a png file, a jpeg file tool is for stripping data from pics off a camera yes ? and exif data is data on camera pics, yes ? were are png files, is this camera data or summink on a pc file you may upload, when would you use this tool, questions , questions, i know, but cheers. Oh and does my exif data remover strip my pics of all the crap that may id me ? thx.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jimmi420 View Post
    Call me thick, but were woulda i come across a png file, a jpeg file tool is for stripping data from pics off a camera yes ? and exif data is data on camera pics, yes ? were are png files, is this camera data or summink on a pc file you may upload, when would you use this tool, questions , questions, i know, but cheers.
    PNG is a standard file type for storing lossless images, and is supported by (almost?) all browsers and applications. But, admittedly, it's probably not supported by many cameras (which usually only handle JPEG/RAW/TIFF).

    However, JPEG is lossy and so opening one and then saving it will reduce the quality every time. That's why if I open a JPEG I tend to save it out as PNG.



    ETA: PNG files do tend to come out larger than JPEGS, though, so that could be a problem in some cases. In those situations, saving as both JPEG and PNG might be wise. The JPEG can be used where file size might be an issue, and the PNG if any future edits are required.
    Last edited by Anonymiss; 25-06-13 at 03:52 PM.

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