Gps On New Cameras ... A Bit Scary

[dryfly]

This was raised a few months ago. Here is the short version of a long story.

 

I post photos at an international photography message board...we show photos and talk about photography. Folks from all over. One of the members lives in Cyprus and recently posted some horse-riding photos taken with his new ultra-fast focus, 12 fps Sony A77 that also has a GSP unit on board.

 

I was curious about the shutter speed and aperture so looked up the EXIF data using an online EXIF service. The EXIF file also showed the GPS coordinates, apparently accurate within a few meters. So I looked up the location using Google Earth.

 

GE took me right into the outdoor arena where he took the photos some 12,000 km away!

 

Neat as hell but also a tad scary!

 

You guys with cameras with GPS may want to strip the EXIF data if showing off (say) big fish from your secret brown trout stream.

 

EXIF is erased when you "Save for web" vs. merely "save as."

 

Just though you'd want to know if you did not already know. Great technology with clear uses, but something we need to be aware of.

 

Clive

[Weedy1]

It would be more fun to use an EXIF data program to change the GPS coordinates within the EXIF data then post the image to the web. There would be a lot of poachers out there looking for fish in the middle of nowhere.

 

[Taco]

Mongolian brown trout eh?

[DonAndersen]

Clive,

 

Apparently cameras on phones can do much the same thing.

 

News article on the issue some months ago. The article focused on teenaged girls sending pictures to Facebook etc. Not only would the bad folks know where they lived but what they looked like.

 

 

Scary.

 

 

Don

[ÜberFly]

I just turn the GSP off on my new panasonic!

 

P

[bigbowtrout]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchangeable_image_file_format