Your photos may do more than hint at where you were—they can outright tell other people your exact location. A snoop just has to know where to look.
Smartphones and modern cameras can add your location to the EXIF data embedded in the photo. This info is not immediately visible, but it can be viewed by looking at the photo’s properties. Your photos may have this data attached on purpose or by accident—either way, the setting to save this information would be switched on in your camera app.
The bigger problem is that you might not know you’re sharing this data with others when you post a photo. Could be on social media. Could be in a group chat. Could be to a new acquaintance you just met.
You should have control over when you reveal this kind of info, and with whom. You can strip out that data (and preserve your privacy) in a few different ways. On your phone, typically you’d open the photo in your gallery app to look at the info and then remove the location data.
But let’s say you’re viewing the photos on a PC. You don’t need to switch back to your phone or copy it. You can do it from within Windows, too.
Right click on the image, then choose Properties > Details. From there, you can check to see if the image shows location data—look for a section called GPS. You’ll see it if there’s location data saved with the photo. If you can’t find the section (not even a name for it), then there’s no such info saved.
If there is GPS data or if you want to wipe other identifying information, like the device used to take the photo and the time and date when it was taken, click on the Remove Properties and Personal Information option at the bottom of the window.
Doing so will bring up an option window that lets you wipe everything in one go or selectively remove pieces of info. (Maybe you want to keep the device info, but not the timestamp, for example.)
Once you’ve made your selection, a copy will be made of the photo in the same folder. Use that version of the photo for more private sharing.
Yes, some social media sites and chat services do this, and Google Photos does too if you share an image with someone else. But the problem with relying on a site is that you have to trust it will handle this consistently and reliably. You also have to trust that they’re not tracking that info themselves, either to create a profile on you (always possible) or to sell it… or both.
Better to do the job yourself, so you know for sure it’s taken care of. Either that or read the terms and conditions for every site you share photos with. (Yeah…)
Author: Alaina Yee
Source: PCWorld
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
