Hey, Watch That Geocoding

Posted by Steve Roos in on 10:30 AM



Did you know your smart phone can tell you when and where you take photos?  This is a cool feature that can come in handy.

But it also has a scary side effect as illustrated by this YouTube story.  The geocoding may stay with the photo, even after you post it online.  A predator can download the photo and figure out exactly where your six-year-old daughter lives and plays, wherever the photo was taken, within a few meters. 

Not good, but you have a couple options:

  1. Turn off the geocoding, usually found under “location” in your phone settings.
  2. You can strip off the data yourself using Opanda or Irfanview.
As of today, FaceBook and MySpace strip off the geocoding, but Twitter and Photobucket do not.