two2brains
Well-Known Member
wow never knew that...
thissss! thanks!
wow never knew that...
Hey everyone,
This isn't anything new; it has been mentioned on this forum before, but I think it deserves more attention. Digital pictures contain a whole bunch of extra user information data (called 'exif' data.) Often times this is just camera info like focal distance, exposure time, etc. Lots of newer cameras, such as the iphone for example, have built in GPS. And in their exif data they give the GPS coordinates of where the picture was taken.
You may think this sounds paranoid. Perhaps it is. Cops probably won't start hassling you just because of a few bytes of data on a random internet picture. Then again you never know when the schizo down the street might get it into his head to knock on your door with a knife and jack your shit. This isn't some esoteric techie thing that's nearly impossible to decode either - it's remarkably easy.
I downloaded a firefox add-on (Exif Viewer) which allows me to right click on images and 'View Image EXIF Data' as I'm doing to a random RIU pic below.
View attachment 1448446
When I do that a pop up window comes up giving me all the info. Including, in this case, GPS coordinates and even a link to Google maps pinpointing the location of a grow. (Often there's even a street view on Google maps that will even show off the front of the freakin' house!) Below is an image of the pop up window containing GPS info for this random pic I found on this forum (for obvious reasons I've obscured that info.)
View attachment 1448448
Anyway, take what you will from this info. Maybe I'm paranoid, but the GPS stuff kind of alarmed me when I heard about it. There are easy ways to scrub this info from your pics if you look into it.
Grow safe.