AIBU to think people don't realize their photos have GPS coordinates?

[NattyAmberPombear]

Just discovered that every photo I've taken on my phone for the past 5 years contains the exact GPS coordinates of where it was taken.

Every. Single. Photo.

Including the thousands I've posted on Facebook of DS showing our house, his school, the parks we go to, etc.

Anyone can extract this information. I Googled how to check and it took literally 30 seconds to see my home address in the photo metadata.

I've now spent an hour going through my Facebook timeline absolutely horrified at how much location data I've shared without realizing.

AIBU to think:

1. This should be opt-in, not default
2. More people should know about this
3. Social media platforms should warn you
4. I'm not a terrible parent for not knowing sooner

DH thinks I'm overreacting but I'm genuinely shaken by this. Am I being ridiculous?

Has anyone else just discovered this or was I literally the only person who didn't know?

We were warned about this by two police officers who did a talk for the school. Paedophiles online will encourage kids to send a photo of something that seems completely harmless, e.g. their new trainers or their dinner, but they get location data from it and start blackmailing the child for either nude photos or money, or can actually visit them.

I regularly warn my kids about this now.

This is really scary to hear, I knew about the location data so stopped my phone from recording that a few years ago. However there will be some images on my Facebook that still have this. How do you get that info from a Facebook pic? Is it easy?

So far as I know - and I’m happy to be corrected - Facebook strips out all geolocation and personal metadata when photos are posted. That may also be true of the other major platforms.

Most social media scrubs metadata for privacy so you don’t really need to worry about this. Obviously only share what you are comfortable with and turn off the gps location settings if you are really worried.

Well I guessed there must be something as Google photos has an album option showing your pictures by place.

Wondering if this is affected by having your location data on or not, I have mine off a lot of the time.

That was my understanding, so I checked and it does seem to be right.

Over the years I’ve seen many posters on here give dire warnings that photos on Facebook can pinpoint the location of users and their families - and these posters sometimes claim to be child protection experts.

Noone reads the app small print 🤷‍♀️
First on the to do list with a new phone is remove the geotaging and data share options to "ask me first"

But with the advances in image resolution and of reversal-image searching you should assume that a range of pictures with no tags can still be used to locate your home.

A stalker in Japan used the images reflected in sunglasess etc to locate his victims home train station and skyline vista images to work out her appartment block and floor.

Your SM uploads will provide a lot of "soft" social data which can be used to trick a child into believing someone is your friend.

I recently got a new iphone. When I first opened the camera it asked if I wanted to allow the camera to use location services. I said no. Just like with my last phone. Job done. My iPhone’s photos say ‘add a location’ in the info area. It doesn’t have that data because when it asked me, I said no. If you didn’t really think that decision through, and are now concerned, then turn it off in settings. Especially on kids phones! You can also strip the metadata if you feel inclined, I believe you can do it in Photoshop (you could last time I needed to get into the metadata).

I knew this due to the Google albums by location but I don't use social media so that's not a concern.

It's also quite useful when a parcel delivery company claims to have delivered something to your house but the location data for the photo of the parcel behind 'your' bin shows that it was left 3 streets away.

Why would anyone think its ok to post thousands of photos of their DC on the internet anyway???

You've got a lot of explaining/apologising to do when he's older.

Yes, that’s more the point. You don’t really need to worry about metadata. You need to worry about what you show and say on social media.

I think the problem isn't the geocoding if people over sharing their personal lives and that of their families on social media.

I'm sorry but I struggle to believe how long it took you to realise this.

Maybe not Facebook etc but my understanding is if someone can trick a child into texting a photo or sharing it on somewhere like Discord, the location data is still there. I'm not a child protection expert.

Discord also strips meta data.

Sending via WhatsApp is safe. Better still screenshot the image first and send that.

Emailed images will show the location.

You can remove the location from individual images or remove the option from your camera altogether.

I learned this stuff the very, very hard way.

Exif data. Doesn't just contain coordinates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif

Most platforms don’t contain that data, I use instagram and locations aren’t added unless you choose to add them to your post. Which I sometimes do on holiday, but I only post holiday snaps once we’re home.

We don’t post any pictures of our children on the internet and our son (only one old enough to have a phone) doesn’t have access to social media, the internet, the ability to download apps or the ability to message someone new without us approving it, so images and messages cannot be send to a new person at all without one of us approving it. He can also only talk via an app called stars, so only direct family have his phone number. As a result he doesn’t use his phone a lot as we’ve made it really really boring.

Facebook only started stripping out metadata in June 2024, so many of those posters were right.

A quick google suggests location (and some other data) stripping began on Facebook in about 2009.

I can’t see anyone’s location / coordinates? Only the location if they’ve tagged their location. Is it something else?

A digital photo is a datafile, and metadata is information in the file such as the camera used to take the photo, the date, and the location if the camera records it. That info can be read if you use software.
Facebook at one point were adding their own metadata.

www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/07/14/facebook-is-embedding-hidden-codes-to-track-all-your-uploaded-photos-report/

Yes. But as far as I can see Facebook and, it looks like all the other SM platforms too, remove the metadata. So it’s not there after posting.

That article (from 2019) is very clear that what Facebook was accused of adding was its own data to allow it to link a photo to a user. So nothing to do with metadata available to anyone else or to do with tracking the movements of Facebook users. I’m not saying I think that’s ok, or even that it still happens, but it doesn’t seem to be anything to do with the OP’s concerns.

I’m surprised people don’t know this. It often comes up especially in court cases in the media.

Why wouldn't you just opt out of all the location sharing requests when asked?