This week, John McAfee, founder of McAfee Security, made headlines when he was arrested in Guatemala where he was hiding from authorities. Ironically, the computer security specialist was located when a photo with his image was posted to the Internet. How did authorities find him? The photo was tagged with the GPS location for where it was taken.
Yet another reminder that we need to be careful about what we publish or post online. When you use your phone to take a picture and then post your photo online, the photo may be tagged with GPS information (longitude and latitude)for where the photo was taken. Geotagging can be useful. For instance, it enables online searches for images or media based on their location, and it can be used by law enforcement to locate missing persons. As with almost everything on the Internet, however, it does have a down side. Many people are unaware that pictures taken with their smart phones or other mobile devices (iPads, tablets) are automatically tagged, revealing the location where the picture was taken. This information is encoded in the photo's metadata, and anyone cannot pinpoint the location by simply downloading a program like Exif Viewer for Firefox, Exif Viewer for Google Chrome, or Opanda IExif for Internet Explorer.
To protect your privacy, just change the settings on your phone. On my Android phone, I simply pull-up the settings for the camera. One of the headings in the scroll down menu is geo-tag photos. I just turn it off. Alternatively, I could turn the GPS off by going to settings, tapping location, and turning off Use GPS Satellites, but then I would not be able to use Maps or Navigation.
On the iPhone or iPad, go to Location Services in Settings. You will see a list of apps that use GPS, including photos,compass, foursquare, and maps. You can choose which ones to leave on and which to turn off.
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