Thursday, September 5, 2013

Geo Tagging – What is geo tagging and risks involved in geotag photos


Internet, facebbok and twitter kind of social sites from smartphones is very common today. Photos clicked on smartphones are immediately shared on social media like facebook. The potential of sending the information to any corner of world is unbeatable and impressive. However, one needs to understand the risks involved in such spontaneous sharing of photos and information from smart phones. The feature is “Geo Tagging”. This is very useful feature of smartphone but at the same time equally dangerous. 
What is Geo Tagging?
It is the process by which geographical location information is added to various media. Location of earth at which smartphone photo is clicked is attached with photo because of geo tagging feature. So when these photos are published on internet, this location of earth information is also gets published. This information includes latitude, longitude, height, distance, name of place and many things related to location at which photo is taken. Hence people on earth now automatically know where do you stay, where are you right now and may be they can know if you are alone or not in home. So it becomes very easy for a person who wants to track or follow you. Especially Criminals may track information using geo tagging to identify next target for robbery. Action news in America few years back had conducted a program to improve overall literacy in people about geo tagging risks. Video is here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2vARzvWxwY
Avoiding the risks of geotagging is a thing to keep in mind in this day and age of decreasing privacy.
So what exactly you need to do?