Be careful of the personal pics you post on the net

BigMac

Long story short........a guy at the gym where I train just got back from vacation. To his surprise when he returned home he found out he had been robbed. Left on the counter in the kitchen was a picture of his new tv that he posted on the net. On the pic someone wrote, THANKS. He had no idea what it meant until I explained it to him.

On every single pic you take the camera records the date and time, and all the other camera settings used to record the photo. That includes the shutter speed, aperture setting, ISO setting, if the flash was used or not, the focal length, gps settings etc. So what basically happened is some 'smart' thief got the gps info. and staked out his place. I think you can figure out the rest but thankfully it was only materialistic things that were taken.

Just a heads up to those that post pics of their families on here.......you could be setting yourself up without even knowing it. Of course, not all cameras have the gps feature but cell phones sure do. Just a heads up.


This is basic example but alot more info. can be obtained. (this is just an example I pulled off of Google pics.)


Here is an example of more amount data that can be gotten from 1 single pic.

Serendipity

This doesn't work with film cameras.

I'll probably be getting a Nikon N80/F100 soon, and scanning the pics. Does the scanner include data like this too?

bobman1235

How would a scanner know when and where you took a film picture?

bruss

This would probably only be a concern for pictures from a cell phone. Surely there is a way to strip it out also

bobman1235

There are a bunch of ways to strip out EXIF data.

Here's a site that outlines a few :

http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/009zj1

Serendipity

bobman1235 wrote: »

How would a scanner know when and where you took a film picture?

Not when and where, but when it was scanned, what OS, etc.

dpowell

I had no idea. I wonder if my camera records that info? Definitely will be looking into that.

Face

dpowell wrote: »

I had no idea. I wonder if my camera records that info? Definitely will be looking into that.

Not many do.

cnh

Bigmac is right,

Almost all cameras keep a record--at least a record that can be traced back to the camera that took a particular shot, as does your PC when you load shots onto it, as does your cell phone, as does anything that you 'copy' onto a hard drive. Let's say you make a personal copy of a CD, if you gave a copy of that CD to a friend it could be tracked DIRECTLY TO YOUR PC in no time...there are 'signatures' for everything thanks to the POWERS that BE....You are being WATCHED!

Turn off your cells and hide in the bathroom! Google Earth can't see 'inside' your house yet, but give it some time???

cnh

bruss

cnh wrote: »

Bigmac is right,

Almost all cameras keep a record--at least a record that can be traced back to the camera that took a particular shot, as does your PC when you load shots onto it, as does your cell phone, as does anything that you 'copy' onto a hard drive. Let's say you make a personal copy of a CD, if you gave a copy of that CD to a friend it could be tracked DIRECTLY TO YOUR PC in no time...there are 'signatures' for everything thanks to the POWERS that BE....You are being WATCHED!

Turn off your cells and hide in the bathroom! Google Earth can't see 'inside' your house yet, but give it some time???

cnh

Im wearing my tin foil hat right now

bobman1235

dpowell wrote: »

I had no idea. I wonder if my camera records that info? Definitely will be looking into that.

The only cameras that would have GPS info would be camera phones, unless you have some camera that has a GPS in it (you would know if it did, cuz you probably paid a fortune for it). Every digital camera will record the date and time and stuff like that but very few record the location.

Pauly

Safe here

Jstas

Heh. I don't need a picture to find you. Especially not from places like MySpace, Twitter, Photobucket, LinkedIn or Facebook. All I need is a real name and the City/State you live in. Thankfully most people post that info directly in their Facebook profiles and make it viewable to the public. Once I have that, it's easy to trace down most people including where they work, immediate supervisor, supervisor's contact info, their home address, their supervisor's home address and so on. You could really destroy someone's world if you want to and there ain't a damn thing most people can do about it because they don't know what to do about it. Getting info on people is easy. Phone books help out alot but so do public records. Especially if you're a criminal. Google is a powerful tool but the results on "Googling" a name are sporadic and often not very finely tuned. It's often hard to get down to a very tight focus in the query because of how Google is structured. There are many other ways to get info. If Google get its "internet library" idea off the ground, that will be huge because then you can search newspapers, magazines, books and other records for info too.

Sure, the picture info made it easier but that was just a TV taken.

Look at all the women who post pictures of their children on Facebook or MySpace and then post the NAMES of the children! If you can get the info about a freakin' TV what's to stop some creep from getting the info about YOUR KID? That's just mothers too. Some dads do it too and the WORST offenders are teenage girls with the stiff-armed, cellphone camera, self-portraits making kissy face for MySpace.

There is no such thing as privacy anymore. There has been a capability to watch people without them knowing for a looooong time. It's just gotten easier with time. Whether they make it stupidly easy to do or not. The Internet is NOT anonymous and there is no such thing as security. Security is just the idea that you put enough walls, pitfalls and roadblocks between the baddies and the stuff you find valuable to make the effort and cost of getting to that valuable thing greater than the value of that valuable thing. That said, if someone REALLY wants that valuable thing, no amount of security will keep it "safe".


Oh and if you have a webcam, make sure you operating system is patched properly and up to date. There is a real easy exploit that can be used to not only turn your webcam on remotely but also redirect the video feed to a remote computer for recording and viewing.

cnh

Pauly wrote: »

Safe here

My tinfoil hat also functions as a HIGH QUALITY audio speaker. I can even play the latest itunes on it!

Jstas is RIGHT! I stay off Facebook, MySpace, etc......

cnh

bobman1235

Wow, you guys realize you're insane right?

It's not like the internet created all of this. If that guy hadn't posted a pic of his TV on the internet, you know how else someone might know he has a huge TV? BY LOOKING THROUGH HIS WINDOW! I'm sure, based on the paranoia around here, that some of you nutjobs have all your windows hermetically sealed and blacked out from the outside world, but most people, you can drive down the street and see house after house with a giant TV shining through the front window. And you know what else? Kids playing outside! In plain view of the public! NO one needed to post their pictures on Facebook (heaven forbid!), they're just right there in your front yard where anyone could see them. Horror of horrors!

George Grand

bobman1235 wrote: »

Wow, you guys realize you're insane right?

I don't think they realize it.

treitz3

Got that right Bob.

bruss

if you know the name and city someone lives in your a damn fool if you cant find out where they live.. lol

meta data on a word document is how the BTK killer was caught right here in good ol kansas.

BigMac

I didn't post this as a paranoia thing, just that I thought it might be an interesting topic. Yeah you can see tvs when driving by and kids playing outside but this was a little different. To leave the pic is just kinda creepy. The detective that is on this case says this is unusual and out of the ordinary. My first thought when I heard this was a flashback to Home Alone where the thieves leave the water running at every house,lol.

**just thought someone may not know of all the data attached to pics with digital cameras. Just a little info.**

Pauly

I hear Polk is gonna start putting cameras in their new lines of speakers to spy on you while you are jamming out to Queen nekkid while playing with your junk and create a new section in CP to stream live.

Cant wait.

Will bring new meaning to "Rock out with your ____ Out!"


Pauly

Jstas

bobman1235 wrote: »

Wow, you guys realize you're insane right?

It's not like the internet created all of this. If that guy hadn't posted a pic of his TV on the internet, you know how else someone might know he has a huge TV? BY LOOKING THROUGH HIS WINDOW! I'm sure, based on the paranoia around here, that some of you nutjobs have all your windows hermetically sealed and blacked out from the outside world, but most people, you can drive down the street and see house after house with a giant TV shining through the front window. And you know what else? Kids playing outside! In plain view of the public! NO one needed to post their pictures on Facebook (heaven forbid!), they're just right there in your front yard where anyone could see them. Horror of horrors!

But your missing the point. If a kid is playing in the yard, it's a nameless kid to someone looking to do harm. Security through obscurity. Find out that kid's info and all of a sudden you find things like what school they go to, who their parents are, who their grandparents are, things like email addresses, instant messaging names, even cellphone numbers if you REALLY want to get dirty.

A kid playing in the yard is just as at risk but there's a chance there could be witnesses to something bad which is BIG deterrent to a perpetrator. Find out about that kid and get the opportunity to do something when nobody is looking, your chances of not getting caught change, drastically, in your favor. Many of the deterrents are removed.

It's not paranoia, it's the midset of someone who has been in the business of information security for the past 15 years. Share your pictures if you want but don't share them with the public. Many sites make it simple for you to make photo collections private and viewable by only a select few. If you aren't going to use those options then you just make it easier for someone to accomplish something detrimental to you.

The other tinfoil hat stuff, yeah, that's paranoia. My post was just reality.

bobman1235

I understand that Jstas, I really do, but to me, working in information security is like working for a branch of the FBI that deals only with horrific crimes. You only see the worst, and you come to expect and prepare for the worst. The scenarios you outline are POSSIBLE, maybe even PLAUSIBLE, and the threat you talk about is certainly realistic, but in the real world, it happens so rarely that at some point the amount of precautions and paranoia are just overkill.

Your kids playing in your yard are no more anonymous than your kids photos on your personal website (or Picasa or Flickr or what have you). Your yard has an address, which can be linked to your name, and there's all the information you need if you're some kind of psycho stalker. I'd argue it's a lot easier for someone to find out who you are based on your physical address than by your login name at a photo sharing website ( Facebook and the like not included).

bruss

before the internet I use to just go through your trash.

Mike Kozak

I am hiding inside my toilet tank

Systems

I'm calling BS on the GPS in my digital camera though....Yes on a cell phone...

Sherardp

Come and get me..................I dare any of you to take that flight. Come on............Do it!!!

Then once you get here you can stake out the place...........and afterward we can party.............

jon s

Some cameras do have GPS devices built-in... such as the Nikon Coolpix P6000
example....
Copy either of the below links
http://a.img-dpreview.com/reviews/Q408enthusiastgroup/samples/realworld/wide/NikonP6000__ISO64_8.jpg
http://a.img-dpreview.com/reviews/Q408enthusiastgroup/samples/realworld/tele/NikonP6000__ISO64_10.jpg

and paste the copied link in the image url box in the below link and click on View Image at URL.......
EXIF Data Viewer

You are going to be surprised at how much information is really stored by your digital cameras...

Ricardo

Who cares.

George Grand

John, I've known you personally, face-to-face for some years now, and you're as crazy as a shithouse rat.

"Who cares?"

Well duh, not you. Sure, just because your camera's gonna print all the info in Spanish.

Ricardo

....

fossy

If the thief left a pic, he had to print it out -- hello ppl --- they can get all the info on the thief from the pic.........:cool: