Warning: System pics and iphones

No way of editing this data then?

There's not an app for that?

You can configure this behaviour in the General / Location Services, if I'm not wrong - there is a separate setting for the camera. On the other side you can edit the EXIF data with a common image editing software to delete the coordinates.

^ assumes GPS connectivity; not great indoors.

This is not limited to iphones - but just about any phone that has a GPS and a camera, as well as current camera with built in GPS.

Just turn camera locations services off. Easy.

I think it is very good that this point is being mentioned. And I'd just like to add a couple of points.

1. More and more regular digital cameras (SLR/Compacts) are also being equipped with geo-location capabilities. So beware in this case also.

2. Even though GPS connectivity may be limited, there are several other ways equipment could potentially use for inferring more or less exact coordinates.

3. Depending on equipment/setup the image may also contain other privacy related information such as full name - and in fact any kind of data.

4. So to be safe, I think its always a good idea to completely delete all this information for uses like this. There are free available tools - often called 'exif cleaners' for all platforms (Mac/PC/Linux). I can't make any specific recommodations myself, but perhaps others can?


Edit: Others beat me to some of the things I mentioned. I'll just leave it as is though...

That's a good point Shayman.

Yes it can be turned off, but most of the time I like having coords saved within pics, so I have the location services enabled, by default.

So you'd have to remember to disable it at the time when you're snapping a pic bound for a dodgy forum like this 'un!

And if you're digging out an old pic from a library, who's going to remember whether location services were on or off at the time it was taken?

So I reckon EXIF editing is the way to go to ensure you don't alert the world of aurally discerning no-gooders to the location of your fancy swag.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Lacey:
^ assumes GPS connectivity; not great indoors.

My iphone can even locate which room in the house I'm in via GPS. You see the dot moving round when using Google Earth and zoomed in above my house. EXIF info would therefore tell anyone which room the hifi is in so they didn't have to look for it if they broke in.

Jonathan

PS I looked into it and people are right that the location data can be switched off but you have to remember to do this.

quote:

Originally posted by bhaagensen:
More and more regular digital cameras (SLR/Compacts) are also being equipped with geo-location capabilities. So beware in this case also.

Off topic ... but what dSLR do you know of that comes with GPS built in - I know some Nikons Fuji and (possibly) Sony cameras can have it added but not sure of any that have it built in...

Eloise

^ Must be some kind of guesswork by the iPhone, as the GPS satellite signal will be screened by your roof.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Lacey:
^ Must be some kind of guesswork by the iPhone, as the GPS satellite signal will be screened by your roof.

Not too difficult to tie up garden, car or whatever to get a location though is it?

I think these clever little phones can do a bit of nifty triangulation/interpolation based on cell towers. That's how the original (non-3G) iphone positioned itself prior to the introduction of a GPS chip in the 3G model, though the resolution was poor.

So perhaps the new models retain this capability?

Furthermore, perhaps they simply assume you're still at the same place you were when they last had a GPS fix, assuming this falls within the error limits of any computed cell-based position. Typically this'll be your front door?

I don't think (?) the basic apple locationing internals employ fancy Kalman filtering (or other extrapolation/noise-reduction solutions) to extrapolate position when signal is lost.

All guesswork, as the numerous '?' suggest.

Mobile phones also use AGPS - which is assisted GPS, augmented with triangulation data from mobile phone towers.

I don't know the specifics, so each manufacturer might implement this differently, but as the discussion has cropped up I thought I'd mention it.

@Eloise: Panasonic have also started to introduce geo-tagging onto some of their cameras as well.

Eloise: The new Sony Alpha-something has. I wasn't aware that Nikon's version was an addon, but I would guess other will follow the new Alpha?

WLAN-capable gear could/can also use IP-based
geo-location. In my case its remarkably precise - down to about 10 meters.

Give it a try in Google maps.

quote:

Originally posted by Eloise:

quote:

Originally posted by bhaagensen:
More and more regular digital cameras (SLR/Compacts) are also being equipped with geo-location capabilities. So beware in this case also.

Off topic ... but what dSLR do you know of that comes with GPS built in - I know some Nikons Fuji and (possibly) Sony cameras can have it added but not sure of any that have it built in...

Eloise

Not aware of any dSLR's that have GPS "built in" but is normally an extra that can be added via the hotshoe I believe.

As for specific tool recommendations I can start out.'exiftool' is a powerful and free tool [for editing exif-data]. It supports a wide variety of image-formats.

Its also available for Linux, Mac, and MSWindos. Though I am only personally familiar with the command-line version (CLI) in Linux and Mac, there is apparently also a GUI* for the MSWindows version. For more on the latter, see the linked web-page - I don't have a MSWin-box, but perhaps someone else could provide more details here?

As for the CLI-version, its rather advanced/powerful, but deleting all tags from, say 'img0000.jpg', is simply a matter of issuing the command:

'exiftool -All img000.jpg'

Linux users should probably use their distributions package management system for installing. Mac and MSWindows users can download a .dmg respectively .zip from here:

Exiftool

* I think there are 3rd party GUI's for Mac and Linux, but I don't know details of the top of my head.

quote:

Other than that this stuff is all getting a bit to much 1984.

Off topic (and not really Orwell), but "interesting" in its own way, I suppose the following is.

In Denmark there is a major/main website for 2.hand sales, www.dba.dk. Its owned by Ebay by the way. Its got tons of crap, but also antiques, collectables, hi-fi, cars, etc, you get the idea. As a part of a system for increased trust, they use a sort of social security based validation system.

Now, the beefy part is that they recently integrated this system with Google-maps (or some such). So now, anyone can simply browse the map [on their 50" high-resolution LED] for stuff they might "want"... Maybe I'm paranoid, but I just don't think its a good idea.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
Great if you want to know where your kids are.:

Half the time, I'd rather not know where my kids are

quote:

Originally posted by Jason:

quote:

Originally posted by Eloise:

quote:

Originally posted by bhaagensen:
More and more regular digital cameras (SLR/Compacts) are also being equipped with geo-location capabilities. So beware in this case also.

Off topic ... but what dSLR do you know of that comes with GPS built in - I know some Nikons Fuji and (possibly) Sony cameras can have it added but not sure of any that have it built in...

Not aware of any dSLR's that have GPS "built in" but is normally an extra that can be added via the hotshoe I believe.

That was my thought too - some Nikon (and Fuji) can have a GPS unit "added" and Sony have a standalone unit which records your GPS trail then that can be merged with the EXIF data via software and I've seen a independent unit which does similar...

Other than that there is a lack of GPS options on DSLR cameras. Some compact digital cameras are getting GPS. I actually think it's a real shame as when on holiday, etc. often good to be reminded where a photo was taken.

Eloise

quote:

I actually think it's a real shame as when on holiday, etc. often good to be reminded where a photo was taken.

Store them in file called "holiday 20xx" etc, when you save them to where ever, unless you just leave them on the camera. Simples.

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:

quote:

I actually think it's a real shame as when on holiday, etc. often good to be reminded where a photo was taken.

Store them in file called "holiday 20xx" etc, when you save them to where ever, unless you just leave them on the camera. Simples.

I was more thinking - when you spend a day driving round ... no so simples!

Same answer, I label most individual pics that aren't covered in the main folder title.
If you want the exact spot you took then what canI say?

quote:

Store them in file called "holiday 20xx" etc, when you save them to where ever

For retrofitting, Apple's iPhoto and Aperture also has simples way of mapping pictures. So do Googles Picasa-application. There are other ways, but none that I know of are quite so simple in use.

quote:

Originally posted by bhaagensen:

quote:

Store them in file called "holiday 20xx" etc, when you save them to where ever

For retrofitting, Apple's iPhoto and Aperture also has simples way of mapping pictures. So do Googles Picasa-application. There are other ways, but none that I know of are quite so simple in use.

That only works if you can remember where they were taken from...