Furthermore, the geo-data stored can also include your altitude above sea level, the direction the camera was facing when it took the photograph, how accurate is your camera's estimate of your location, and even place names.īut how does your smart phone know where you are? It also stores date and time information, the camera settings that we use to take a photograph or video, a small thumbnail picture to preview the image on the camera's LCD screen, and so on.īut EXIF files are now being used to store extra information, such as your latitude and longitude coordinates. But it doesn't store only images and sound. It is an industry standard that specifies the format for images and sound used by digital cameras. This geographical identification data is usually stored as 'metadata' in what is called an EXIF file, as part of your digital photograph.ĮXIF stands for exchangeable image file format. This happens automatically with practically all smart phones that have a camera built in, and with a few specific digital cameras. What it means is that when you take a photograph or video, your geographical location is almost always embedded in the digital files of that photograph or video. This new-ish technology that the soldiers didn't fully understand is called 'geo-tagging'. Because some soldiers took photographs and posted them on the web, the US taxpayer lost over $100 million.
One expensive example of this happened back in 2007 on a US military base in Iraq. If you don't understand the technology you use, every now and then your ignorance will come back and bite you. Audio: Geotagging: how much do your photos give away? (Science Online Audio).
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