Geo-tagging - PLEASE READ

[Husker]

Wonder if we could track down those vermin that make (or fail to make, and simply steal monies) those shitty stills, using this method? I image as stupid as they are designing the text for their website, they have not turned this type information off.

I certainly am not suggesting anyone do this, or actually 'use' any information found.

[RumBrewer]

Wonder if we could track down those vermin that make (or fail to make, and simply steal monies) those shitty stills, using this method?

Quick trip to China?

[moonshine guy]

Yes, I did run across this on my iphone last week when I was looking at my pics I had taken. But I would have never guess that it would follow a posted pic. I'm glad that I have not posted from my iphone! BIG BROTHER is watching you in more ways than one, ALL CELL PHONES MUST BE GPS ENABLE! This means as soon as you power up your phone, big brother has a location on you! Same thing with all of you with the great service of ON-STAR, they know where your car is and that means they know where you are! People, go out and get an old car that has points and plugs in it to have on hand if you have to get out of Dodge! Not too much the gov. can do with it if they are looking for you except for stop sticks and then you can buy some run-flats for that little problem!

[YHB]

I first came across geotagging with some Google software called "Picasa" I use it as library indexing system for my photographs, geotagging being one of the options available. Another option in Picassa is "face recognition" basically Picasa goes away and looks at every picture on your computer and groups them together dependent on who is on them. It is awesome - the software manged to recognise that two pictures were of the same person - my brother - one picture was taken of him when he was 19 the other when he was 65. On my very Basic PC I can track who, was where, with whom and when.

Facebook is just one of many "social sites". Millions of people are uploading pictuires to Facebook everyday. Facebook has face recognition as a basic option, Members are listing their friends, their contacts, the pictures they are uploading may well have geotagging data. Big brother does not need to spy on us - we are all standing up and shouting "were are here".

Of course I am paranoid and I admit it, I also appreciate that if "They" want to know "They" will find a way. I just believe that we should not make it to easy for "Them".

On a more down to earth level - There are bad guys out there who can now access open forums such as ours, read the threads, chats and notice boards find out who is going on vaction and when, and now with the aid of geotagging find out the address of the empty home.

Please Please be careful.

[rad14701]

ALL CELL PHONES MUST BE GPS ENABLE! This means as soon as you power up your phone, big brother has a location on you!

Better pull the battery, which you can't do with newer cell phones, because on some models the GPS is always on... The power button only controls whether YOU have access to the phone...

[Uncle Artie]

A trick I learned in art school (for shinking file size) is to save your file as a high rez .bmp file. Then reopen the .bmp and save it as a .jpg. It will strip out all the data but the image.

[Padraig]

A trick I learned in art school (for shinking file size) is to save your file as a high rez .bmp file. Then reopen the .bmp and save it as a .jpg. It will strip out all the data but the image.

This will not always work, it depends on the software you use. The free editor http://www.irfanview.com/ will let you remove the data. Just open the picture, "Save As" and uncheck the boxes that say "Save EXIF data", etc.

[Endysis]

You should be able to remove the data very simply using most photo editing software, simply by copying the original (Control or Commmand+A, Control or Command+C), creating a new file, pasting it in (Control or Command+V), and saving.

Or if you want to get super tech you can open the file, and take a screen capture (PC users: hit the "PrtSc" Print screen button, then create a new file in Paint or whatever you have, paste in and crop... Mac users get it even easier: just hold down "Command+Shift+4" and you will get a crop tool to crop whatever portion of the screen you wish, and it will save the image for you to your desktop as a .png.)

[YHB]

Copying the file and creating a new version will also copy and take the geo tagging data with it, you then have two files to worry about.

Screen copy does not give a particularly high quality picture, and the original file still has the Geo Tagging data attached.

[Endysis]

Copying the file and creating a new version will also copy and take the geo tagging data with it, you then have two files to worry about.

Screen copy does not give a particularly high quality picture, and the original file still has the Geo Tagging data attached.

Let me clarify: With the file open in your editing program (i.e. Photoshop) you select all, copy, and paste into a new document... you'll lose all EXIF and IPTC data that was set on the original, as you are only transferring pixel data via the selection.

Screen capture will not be high resolution, but for posting to forums most people seem to prefer smaller, web friendly images, and it could reduce the need for an additional step in resizing overly large images... Plus not everyone has, or wants photo editing software, but every pc should have paint

[forcrz6]

While I can Attest that the information is fully factual for geo location, we should also be aware that any and all information is also easily obtained via these forums. IP addresses, subnets, Computer Name. MAC Addresses. All are easily found not only with in the phpbb code that these forums run off of. But also logged at the ISP CMTS/Server level. While it is never good to post your exact location VIA a picture. If the feds really wanted to, all they would have to do is submit paperwork to your Local ISP and see what MAC address had what IP address at what time. At that point that will tell them exactly who and where any and all information came from on the said investigation post.

Really unless you know haw to do the following.

1. Hide your IP address
2. Make Anonymous Proxy Servers across the web
3. have direct access to server logs
4. Have drone PC's

these would be the 4 things that you would need so that any official can not track you down. Hiding your IP is easy enough, but on the flip side it is extremely easy to uncover your real IP address if you are just using some over the web IP address hider that you can download.

A proxi server. While much better at hiding your IP address is still flawed. It really is harder to track you down, but not impossible

Having direct access to any and all server logs is excellent. Provided that no one is snooping your packets already. If they are not snooping your packets, then you should be able to clear all server logs of your real IP as long as you are not doing it from your PC.

this brings us to Drone PC's. Just like a Bee hive. Drones do all the work for the queen (Queen = You) You just simply have to find them. Connect to them with a Proxi. Set up another proxi on them use that drone to connect to how ever many drones are out there VIA proxi connections that are SSL/MSCHAP/ L2TP/PPTP Protocols (Tunneling/secure connections), and then make sure you run a nice little batch script on all the machines when you leave them. At that point any and all trace of you is gone. But who would want to do all that for a forum post?

So what I am trying to say here is the following. While yes it is always great to turn off geo location, it will not prevent them from seeing who/where you are. It really is a double edged sword.

Sorry, but I have worked at an ISP for 8 years. Administrated our linux Email servers for another 2, and now am the desktop administrator of well over 400 people. I just wanted to let you know that and what I have seen. I know what works and what fails.

[rad14701]

forcrz6, a majority of your examples would require a federal search warrant - yet geotag data is openly available to the entire world... Therein lies the difference... Lets not incite needless paranoia... Think of it more along the lines of any pervert being able to figure out where your daughter plays based on your publicly posted pictures of her rather than whether the federal government can figure it out...

[forcrz6]

rad14701 you are 80% correct. While a federal search warrant is required in most cases. This is not true for them all. Most of the time the ISP will give the information on either a Subpoena, or a Court Order. All the information as far as IP address. Length of use, Name, address can all be obtained by Subpoena, or a Court Order. What needs a warrant is the server logs. Server logs that are held by a communications company (and that is the key part Communications) need a warrant to get the server logs. But if it is a company like Godaddy, 1and1, stuff like that. "Website providers" they are not covered by this part of the law as they are not considered an communications service. To obtain the records from them all the gov would need is a Subpoena, or a Court Order.

While yes it is highly unlikely that the gov would do that for this site as we are not trying to dig deep in their pockets, and this site is really 1 of many. It is highly unlikely the gov would really do anything here besides send in a drone to watch the goings on.

Don't get me wrong, I do not want to scare people away, I am just trying to be more informative on a subject matter that relates to us all.

As far as your example goes I understand what you are trying to say. And you are correct with the daughter example. That is 1 of the best ways to advert the issue.

[QuietOne]

While I know it is possible to view the location a picture was taken with many cell phones.

I haven't been able to figure out how it is done.

So for us ludites would someone care to enlighten me using the lama as an example. I've viewed the picture and I don't know how to view the geotag

[YHB]

The Llama was put up as an example early on. During the sanitising of the pictures that were on HD at the time, all the Geotagging data on the Llama and the other pictures was deleted.

If you go to this website http://regex.info/exif.cgiyou will be able to interrogate any picture either on your hard drive or on the web. If those pictures have geotagging information then a map will appear and take you the location that the picture was taken.

[puig]

Many thanks for the headsup YHB

Cheers M

[AndyC]

Hate to say this but my assumption is they already know who we are.

Many entities are already monitoring every kind of social network forum you could think of.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/0 ... atacenter/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[YHB]

Hate to say this but my assumption is they already know who we are.

You may be correct, "they" may know. But there is a difference, here you are telling the whole world ... Lets not incite needless paranoia... Think of it more along the lines of any pervert being able to figure out where your daughter plays based on your publicly posted pictures of her rather than whether the federal government can figure it out...

If you think that this simple precation is not worth considering, when you next submit a picture would you add the caption, "This is a picture of my still it was taken at ... add address here ....... that is what geotagging data does.

[Oxbo Rene]

OK, lets test this, (cause I can't see any "location data" from using the website)....

Here's a picture, tell me where it was taken ..............

OK, I re-read the info, looked at lots of pics I have taken with diff cameras and robbed off the
internet, none have a map, etc, etc.......
But I realize, it's probably coming soon ................

[moonshine guy]

This link does not work, http://regex.info/exif.cgi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow check photo on local disk.

[YHB]

OK, lets test this, (cause I can't see any "location data" from using the website)....

Here's a picture, tell me where it was taken ..............

You wont see any location data with this picture - the photograph was taken with an OLYMPUS SZ-10 camera, this type of camera does not have GPS capabilities.

The Meta Data file contains lots of information in this "test".

Here's the full data:

EXIF — this group of metadata is encoded in 13,906 bytes (13.6k)

Exif Image Size 3,264 × 2,448
Image Description OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Camera Model Name SZ-10
Orientation Horizontal (normal)
Software Version 1.0
Modify Date 2011:12:31 12:43:54
5 months, 28 days, 21 hours, 11 minutes, 10 seconds ago
Y Cb Cr Positioning Co-sited
Exposure Time 1/250
F Number 9.30
Exposure Program Creative (Slow speed)
ISO 80
Exif Version 0221
Date/Time Original 2011:12:31 12:43:54
5 months, 28 days, 21 hours, 11 minutes, 10 seconds ago
Create Date 2011:12:31 12:43:54
5 months, 28 days, 21 hours, 11 minutes, 10 seconds ago
Components Configuration Y, Cb, Cr, -
Compressed Bits Per Pixel 2
Exposure Compensation 0
Max Aperture Value 3.1
Metering Mode Multi-segment
Light Source Unknown
Flash Off, Did not fire
Focal Length 5.0 mm
Exposure Mode Auto
Resolution 72 pixels/inch
Maker Note Olympus 2 (4,698 bytes binary data)
User Comment

Flashpix Version 0100
Color Space sRGB
Interoperability Index R98 - DCF basic file (sRGB)
Interoperability Version 0100
File Source Digital Camera
Scene Type Directly photographed
Custom Rendered Normal
White Balance Auto
Digital Zoom Ratio 0
Focal Length In 35mm Format 28 mm
Scene Capture Type Standard
Gain Control Low gain up
Contrast Normal
Saturation Normal
Sharpness Normal
Offset Schema 0
Print Image Matching (690 bytes binary data)
Compression JPEG (old-style)
Thumbnail Length 7,436

MakerNotes

Special Mode Normal, Sequence: 0, Panorama: (none)
Camera ID OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Equipment Version 0100
Camera Type 2 SZ-10
Focal Plane Diagonal 7.714 mm
Body Firmware Version 81
Camera Settings Version 0100
Preview Image Valid Yes
Preview Image Start 1,720,549
Preview Image Length 57,747
Exposure Mode Program
Macro Mode Off
Flash Mode Off
White Balance 2 Auto
White Balance Bracket 0 0
White Balance Bracket 0
Scene Mode Intelligent Auto
Scene Mode Auto
Magic Filter Off; 1280; 0; 0
Drive Mode Single Shot
Panorama Mode Off
Image Processing Version 0112
Olympus Image Processing 0x0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Distortion Correction 2 On
Olympus Image Processing 0x1115 3 3
Olympus Image Processing 0x1116 900 900
Faces Detected 0 0 0
Face Detect Area (383 bytes binary data)
Max Faces 16 16 16
Face Detect Frame Size 0 0 0 0 0 0
Olympus Image Processing 0x1204 1 0
Olympus Image Processing 0x1205 2
Olympus Image Processing 0x1206 1 0 0 200 0 2 90 0 200 0
Olympus 0x0107 29705 0
Quality SQ (Low)
Macro Off
Black And White Mode Off
Digital Zoom 1.0
Camera Type SZ-10
Resolution 1
Olympus 0x020a 0 0
Olympus 0x0225 03
Pre Capture Frames 0
White Board 0
One Touch WB Off
White Balance Bias 0
Olympus 0x0306 0
Olympus 0x0400 1
Olympus 0x0401 2
Olympus 0x0402 16,797,705
Serial Number 000JEH240640
Olympus 0x0406 1
Olympus 0x0407 2
Data Dump (3,316 bytes binary data)

ExifTool

Warning [minor] Error reading PreviewImage from file

PrintIM

PrintIM Version 0300
Print IM 0x0001 0x00140014
Print IM 0x0002 0x00000001
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JFIF

JFIF Version 1.01
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File — basic information derived from the file.

File Type JPEG
MIME Type image/jpeg
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Encoding Process Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
Bits Per Sample 8
Color Components 3
File Size 70 kB
Image Size 640 × 480
Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling YCbCr4:2:0 (2 2)

Composite
This block of data is computed based upon other items. Some of it may be wildly incorrect, especially if the image has been resized.

Aperture 9.30
Shutter Speed 1/250
Thumbnail Image (7,436 bytes binary data)
Light Value 14.7
Scale Factor To 35 mm Equivalent 5.6
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Hyperfocal Distance 0.50 m
------------
End of meta data
------------

If it had been taken with a GPS camera or phone and the Geotagging facility was switched on, I would have neen able to provide a map as well.

Try google images and search for "geotagged pictures" http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=10&h ... 1AWu5MXgDQ

[Prairiepiss]

That's all the info you got from that pic? I thought there would be more.

[big cheese]

Maybe i am missing something. I went into my phones setting. there is a button that says Geot-tag photos and you have to click it to turn off. but when i go to http://homedistiller.org/forum/download ... &mode=view and open any of the photos from my phone I do not get any maps showing where the location of the picture was taken. Can anyone explain this?

Thanks

Big Cheese

[YHB]

BC

Save the some photos that were taken on your phone while you have the geotagging enabled - save them on your desktop.

open this link

http://regex.info/exif.cgi

Click the browse button next to the "Local Image File" box and navigate to the pictures you have saved, then press "view image from file"

This will then open a window and allow you to read all the attached metadata, if the metadata contains latitude and longitude then it will show you the location in a window with a map.

This works on my windows PC if you are using a Mac, your phone,I-pad - sorry I cannot help you.

[Oxbo Rene]

Hmmmmmmph ! ! !

[big cheese]

yhb,

My droid phone does not have an option to turn it on. Just turn it off. but using your link it does not show me my latitude and longitude.

strange.

Big Cheese

[YHB]

Sorry I don't know that particular phone but ...........

In general, the phones / cameras and all gps devices need to establish their location, this is done by picking up signals from a number of orbiting satelites, this takes time (a few minutes) and initially being outdoors helps. If you are "playing" with your phone switching the GPS systems of and on while you are indoors, the chances are that the device will not have a "fix" on its location.

[AndyC]

Hate to say this but my assumption is they already know who we are.

You may be correct, "they" may know. But there is a difference, here you are telling the whole world ... Lets not incite needless paranoia... Think of it more along the lines of any pervert being able to figure out where your daughter plays based on your publicly posted pictures of her rather than whether the federal government can figure it out...

If you think that this simple precation is not worth considering, when you next submit a picture would you add the caption, "This is a picture of my still it was taken at ... add address here ....... that is what geotagging data does.

Don't confuse YOUR thoughts with anything I have written.....which is what you just did.

[spiritus vini]

It would be pretty neat if we could spoof the location. Make 'em look somewhere in Alaska or somewhere in a jungles! I would take a great pleasure of misleading the 'watching eye' to go look for me or my still in a world's cloaks.

[spiritus vini]

There is also a free utility that can strip all meta tags and exif tags off

http://www.photothumb.com/metastripper/