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Sunday, August 15, 2010

Photo Upload Alert

This is not the original topic that I planned on posting about, but it caught my attention with GREAT CONCERN....

I don't know if all of you whom post pictures use cameras, cell phones or other devices to take your shots that you post.  If you are uploading from CELL PHONES or other devices that also have a GPS device in them, PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THERE COULD BE A GPS CHIP IN YOUR PHOTOS that you are posting that gives YOUR EXACT LOCATIONS.

There was a NEWS report in our area this weekend, that our photos coming from cell phones, etc. have a chip that pretty much anyone can read with very little internet knowledge.  If we are posting pictures from our homes, or of children, and then posting about a trip or being away for work, we are making information available to ANYONE who reads our post whether it be on a BLOG, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, etc. 

I don't know exactly how it works, but the report said to disable the GPS when using the CAMERA portion of these devices.  It said you have to go through several menus to get to it.  Definitely, for everyones SAFETY, please pass this on to anyone that you might know who does this.  There was an article about it in the New York times last Thursday, August 12, 2010 or at Yahoo!Finance.

TO EVERYONE, PLEASE STAY SAFE AND WELL...

Updated Monday morning....   For anyone trying to find out more information, I found out the chip in the photo is called a GEOTAG.

3 comments:

laurie said...

wow, that's fascinating! that can't apply to me, because i don't have a cell phone. but it's frightening, isn't it, all the ways we can be tracked without knowing it?

Reflections said...

I tried to link to the article that I found on the report about this, but I could not get it to work. It's scary when you think of how many post on social sites by simply uploading from cell phones, never even giving it a second thought.

Friko said...

No, I only use cameras.
Thanks for the warning.