Is there A Downside to Geotagging? A closer look at Location and Privacy
Written by Glenn Letham (@gletham)
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
The topic of privacy (and security) is a huge one with respect to location-based services… case in point, this article which has been floating around for a week or so now!
It got me thinking.. indeed, with so many GPS-enabled and
location-aware devices on the market these days (all the new S60
devices, iPhone, blackberry etc…) and the love of mobile users for
sharing their media with the World (flickr, youtube, mosh, jaiku,
twitter, facebook, etc…) do mobile device users really have any idea
what kind of information they are sharing?? I know myself I’ve shared
information on my facebook that I never realized I was sharing - also
receive info that I’m sure others aren’t aware that I’m seeing!
Using the previously mentioned article
as an example though, are users really informed and aware what they are
sharing when they upload and share photos from their cell phones? Geotagging
is all the rage and there’s many tools around to help users add geo
location to their photos (shozu, locr, zonetag, brightkyte etc…) and
there’s numerous ways to embed your location information via social
networks like Twitter and facebook (wehereyougonnabe, brighkyte,
twitpic, sports tracker, gps twitter, twibble, etc…). Building on the
example in the article, I did my own test the other day as I wandered
around Flickr. Browsing a Flickr map in my region I easily viewed
recently uploaded photos in my neighborhood - one can also do this on
Google Maps viewing Panoramio images.
One photo got my attention… it
was a shot of 2 young women posing for a portrait. It turns out that it
was captured by what seemed to be a pro photographer who had then
uploaded the photograph to his own portfolio of work that he keep son
flickr. Looking closer I noticed that he had also not only included
locations (geotagging) with all his photos, but he also was sharing
that information with the World - I wasn’t a contact, friend, or
connection of his. With a click of the mouse I could see exactly where
he captured the photograph of the two women - the location was a home
in a residential neighborhood.Using other online search tools, local
search, white pages, reverse geocoding etc… I’m sure I could have also
easily determined the names, address and phone number of a girl in the
photo… a bit disturbing, right??
So, you have to wonder, was the photographer aware that he was
sharing location information via his flickr account? Was he aware that
his photos were geo-tagged? Were the women aware that he was sharing
the location where the photo was captured - likely a private residence?
Geotagging technology is awesome, however, users of web services that
take advantage of this information really need to be conscious of their
account privacy settings and need to be aware of how to take control of
their personal information.
In a timely manner, I also just stumbled onto details of this bill over on OpenCongress titled “Camera Phone Predator Alert Act” which will require mobile phones with cameras to make a sound when capturing a photo!
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The Underground Guide To The iPhone:
The iPhone is – if I may say so – one of the greatest mobile
revolutions of the past decade. More and more, mobile phones seem to
materialize out of our wildest dreams. Because of the tight integration
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Good Mobile Messaging: Executives and professional field forces spend an increasing amount of time on the road tending to business.
Mobile Apps - Native or Web?:
You probably have a plan to build a mobile app, but you've struggled
with the basic question - Should I build it using open web standards
such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, or should I build it as a native app
for the devices I want to target?
iBike Coach App- a new “Always On” feature always gathers data
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Content & Apps for Automotive Europe 2012 (18-19 April, Germany)
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Esri Dev Summit - The
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