You meet someone recent on a dating app., then take the conversation to text messages. Things are going well, and also you send an image of the sunrise one morning. Harmless, right? Boom! You might have just given away your exact location.
Our tech stores every kind of tidbits about where we’re, what we’re doing, once we’re doing it, you name it. Suspect someone is cheating? Tech leaves those breadcrumbs, too.
Our apps and services are tracking where we’re, too. You may put a stop to that.
When you’re at it, let’s ensure you’re not making a gift of greater than you bargained for via your pics.
It’s all within the metadata
Each time you snap an image, your phone stores metadata. That features details just like the device you took it on, your camera settings, the info and where you took it. This can be referred to as EXIF data.
Sending someone an image you took at a public place? Not an enormous deal. What about when you might have sent picture after picture from the identical location? Anyone who knows easy methods to access this info now knows where you reside.
Here’s easy methods to stop oversharing
To stop location sharing on iPhone:
- Open the image you need to share and tap the share button (it looks like a square with an arrow pointing up).
- Next, select Options, and toggle off Location.
It’s a pain to do that for each picture, so it’s also possible to disable this location tracking in your camera altogether.
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap on Privacy > Location Services.
- Scroll down and tap on Camera, then select Never.
On Android, here’s easy methods to wipe a single photo:
- Open your gallery, select the photo,
- Go to Details (it might be a three-dot menu) and click on Remove location data.
To disable your location from photos for good, do that:
- Open the Camera app’s settings.
- Turn the situation setting off.
What about social media?
By default, the major social media sites strip out photo metadata while you upload. Hey look, there’s one thing they’re doing for our privacy.
Don’t worry about someone downloading your pictures from Instagram or Twitter. They won’t find any hidden details.