Digital Picture Geotagging

[youbeyouibei]

Geotagging - anyone familiar with this? Read an article the other day about this technology and how it's affecting troops overseas, as the GPS coordinates and information can be lodged into a digital picture via the camera without the person knowing it and then when the photos are uploaded to the 'Net, that information can be extracted by people with the knowledge of how to do so.

Also read that it can be used by criminals/unsavory characters (HA!) to find out personal information via the same means and if someone is posting a picture taken in their home, the GPS coordinates can be obtained fairly easily from the uploaded picture due to the embedded data.

Pretty unsettling stuff... anyone familiar with this and if so, know of how to disable or corrupt/encrypt the data so that it can't be extracted from the photos? Any information would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

[aahmn]

I think your camera would have to have GPS abilities to be able to even have that data to encrypt. I know maybe that could be an issue with some phones, but I don't know of any cameras with GPS.

[youbeyouibei]

Thanks very much, aahmm! I know just enough of technology to know a few things:
1) I know nothing!

2) Most any type of machine, especially computers, hate me

3) I know nothing!

Lol! Thanks for the info and for clarifying that. Just wasn't sure, as I knew it applied to certain cell phones but I wasn't sure about digital cameras. Thanks again!

[llovelace]

The nikon coolpix is a geotagging camera, so is the Sony alpha DSLR, in fact alot of the cameras today have GPS.

[spitzu]

My Droid X tags the pictures, so I stopped posting those online. My Rebel T1i does not have GPS.

Just right click on one of the pictures on your drive and view Properties -> Details. Scroll down and see if it shows any coordinates under "GPS" or "Location".

I believe some forums, like this one, strip that data or are configured not to show it because none of my phone pics that I uploaded here display the coordinates.

[youbeyouibei]

Thanks very much, spitzu, for the detailed info! I think even I can handle that, lol! Thanks again.

[spitzu]

Apparently you can turn location tagging off on most phones. I was trying to figure it out a few months ago without success, but finally just found the option on my Droid. Derp!

Yay, I can take phone pics again!