This is a big issue in my business. We scrub and then scrub some more in terms of exif data. I was reading this article on coin week about thieves and theres a photo of one of these Edited~ language Exif data came to mind. Now, I know this isn't some haven for bad guys, but I'm curious as to how many people who take photos with their iPhones know they are broadcasting their location? Its something to keep in mind, and I'm sure this forum has covered it somewhere. If you do take photos with iPhone, do y'all know how to scrub the data if its concerning to you? In the bullion forum, some guys have tons of bullion, taking photos with iPhones and I know a lot of us have safes and all, but I figured Id bring that up. If you have somewhere secure to put your items, whats one more process of making your household safe as well? Is there any interest in knowing how to scrub exif data? Is it somewhere in this site that I don't know. Maybe it should be bumped, I can't find it though, so ill need a hand if its out there.
Well the way I do it is bone simple. I save as BMP. Big wasteful and not a drop of EXIF. Then just save to whatever you like for sharing/storage. People that care about privacy don't post their lives to the net in general so, yeah, they know this or at least enough not to trust technology.
You do, do they? Or do you speak for " all " of the people I see who post bullion and rare coins with smartphones with coordinates up to 30 meters to their houses? Im willing to bet you a 1000 bucks most don't know enough, or just lazy. I think its good to bring this up , if it hasn't been brought up. If one has a safe for physical items, I see no diff in putting a " safe" on virtual thomas guides to your homes. Your method is simple and easy as it gets. Anyone else like to share their methods of scrubbing data of pictures? I think its good to share this type of stuff. I do something similar, but I use Aperture and theres options in there to get rid of certain data. My photog friends like to see other peoples ISO's, modes they shoot in, aperture's etc. So I usually leave that stuff in there. I think most serious photogs enjoy that actually. Its interesting in seeing how one set up a shot.
Chachie - First of all, you are talking about things of which I know nothing. That's partly because I wouldn't even own a "smart phone". But let me see if I understand you correctly. You are saying that if people take pictures with their smart phones that inside each one of those pictures there is data buried that will tell anybody who wants that data exactly where you were when you took that picture ? Do I understand you correctly ?
Yes Doug. In the iphone in particular, they attach GPS coordinates from where the photo was taken. I believe some other smart phones do as well. I agree its a good point to bring up to some people who may not be aware of this. This is why I would never take a photo with my phone to share, but avr5700's solution works if you wish to go through the effort. I have seen some news reports of people stalking others with this data, and a CA friend told me she saw a seminar for agents discussing this, so they can let their celebrity clients know about it. It is a major privacy concern.
All the more reason not to own one of the things. Now let me ask another question. So this GPS data is embedded into the pic. But what happens to that data when one of those pics is uploaded to a web site ? On this forum for example, all pics are pretty much reformatted by our software because of file sizing and storage issues when they are posted. So while I don't know, I would think that the reformatting would strip away that data. Would it not ? But what about other web sites, like the social web sites ? I would think that they too reformat all posted pictures for the same reasons we do. But if they do not, then posting pics could be downright dangerous. And for far more reasons than worrying about somebody stealing your coins. I for one would be scared to death to post a pic of my kids, if I had young kids.
I will let one of the young guns answer definitely, but I do not think resizing changes the file. Its a small file embedded into the jpeg, and the pic size itself is irrelevant. I see there are software packages created JUST to remove this data, so I would doubt resizing affects it. As for social media, etc. my wife zealously updates Facebook settings since she does at times post pics from her smart phone. Its a pandora's box they have opened, and I am afraid that until some gets seriously hurt or worst no one is going to do anything about this danger.
Not sure about iPhones, but I guess you can turn location data off in the phone settings. Problem is, you may not be able to do that as selectively as you might want to do it. Basically location tags are a nifty feature - hmm, where exactly did I take that photo? But yes, there are good reasons for turning them off at times, or most of the time. I have an image editing tool that lets me remove metadata (including EXIF information) from JPEG files. Another option, especially if you don't need big images, is to open a photo file, make a screenshot, and then use/edit/post the latter. Christian
It's dependent on the web site. Resizing is a completely different process from stripping out exif, but exif does take a fair bit of space. So some sites will do both, and some will just resize. CT does not strip out exif. Dave
If you want to read up a bit more on what EXIF is, what it was originally intended for, etc. you can find that information on Wikipedia at this link. Reformatting, resizing, and many other types of modifications will not automatically strip the file of EXIF data. Circularly cropping an image will maintain the EXIF data, but if you circularly select and copy that to a new workspace, then the EXIF data will be lost. It's somewhat "quirky" to know what is and isn't lost. Most image editing software allows you to directly edit the EXIF data...but you have to know it's there first. In short, it is extra "behind the scenes" information that gives details about when a picture was taken, the camera settings, the lens used, etc. Recently, GPS information has been more consistently included on files because it is easier to know where images are taken -- particularly, mobile phones are the primary users of the GPS (geolocation) set of tags.
When I recieved my new iPhone it asked me if I wanted to link my location to my photos. I chose no. Does it still retain the data anyways even though I opted out?
I do not know, as I'm not an iPhone user. And just for the record, iPhones are not the only "smart phones" that tag images with this information. I'm not a paranoid type, and I also don't use regularly or post to social media sites, so it really doesn't affect me. But, this is by no means a "new" topic. While there may not be a thread here on CT (and I'm glad there is now), the most memorable place I remember seeing this reported was on CNN about 2 years ago (See article here). I do know that Facebook currently strips most EXIF data from photos, but I'm not sure about all of the other sites. If you do a simple search on Google for "EXIF privacy" you will get more to digest than you probably care to read!
Doing a little digging, it looks like it does not store the info. I checked a few of my photos. Date and time and everything else, but not GPS coordinates.
Good to know for you. I believe the newer phones are easier to disengage this feature, primarily from the protests Apple got from privacy advocates on earlier models. Still, other phones are not so easy to deactivate. Even if an iphone, no one remembers all of the set up selections, and their consequences, when getting new devices. I think this is just a good thread and topic to always remind members of. Unfortunately, security for those of us who own PM will become more of an issue I am afraid.
If you are worried about security of your household, one solution is to take pictures with a real camera when you are in or around your home, not with your phone. If you go to an amusement park and take pictures of your kids, the GPS would be for that park, not your home, which is when most people would be taking those types of spur-of-the-moment pictures anyway. Small, point and shoot, high quality cameras can be hand for a fraction of the cost of a smart phone -- so if you can afford an iphone, and you own enough silver/gold/coins to be worrying about things like GPS giving away your location, then you can certainly also afford a real camera. JMO. There are a few cameras with GPS functionality also (not just phones) -- but they are high end, professional quality, and generally intended for things like safari and rainforest shoots when you would want to be able to trace your experience and where exactly you found those particular species, plants, etc.
I never said I was worried. Just merely asking questions. You know, trying to get the information out there which is the purpose of this thread I thought. But thanks for the lecture on cameras and my ability to afford one.
Log, My comments were general comments, not comments to you. If they were pointed at you I would have quoted your post. Unfortunately, in English (unlike most other languages) we don't have a separate singular and plural form of "you". So you could interpret my comments as "If you guys are worried..."
The bad news is that all cameras store some EXIF data (camera model, flash on or off, lens type, zoom, etc.) with some newer point-and-shoot and dSLR models including GPS data too. That feature can be disabled although it's handy while traveling (villages in Italy start to look alike!) since the latitude & longitude data can pinpoint where the picture was taken. Pictures of your kids or your coin collection with that data isn't such a good idea. Posting a picture with location EXIF data on photo sharing websites like Flickr or Webshots, social media sites like Facebook or Google+ or even here leaves that data intact. I can save the picture and easily read that data. If you are concerned about perhaps revealing too much about yourself when posting a photo, there are EXIF data editors (both free and for-fee) available that can scrub all EXIF data from a picture. Just google (used as a verb...) "EXIF data editor"to find one that suits your needs. The geolocation feature isn't just an iPhone issue as Android phones, iPads and even your desktop or laptop computer can collect, imbed and broadcast that data. You can test to see if your browser has the geolocation feature turned on at this website http://benwerd.com/lab/geo.php Geolocation can be turned off on all browsers and devices - which isn't a bad idea.
