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Saturday 18 April 2009

Desked and iPhones and nefarious types.

bad iPhone....

It has come to my attention, via a very scary email, that if you take a photograph of your desk with an iPhone and then submit that photo to Desked and then I or my good chum Mr Red Leeroy then publish the photo of your desk along with some pithy lines about the tidiness or otherwise of said desk then nefarious people with nefarious minds COULD, with a bit of jiggery pokery, find out where you live or work.

And they can do this with frightening accuracy.

Oh my.

The email came from blog chum and photographer, Toast. He can explain the whole thing better than I....

"Ha... when you take a picture with a digital camera, it by default adds in some extended data from the camera, 'exif' data, now traditionally this was info to help the photographer such as f-stop used, lens type etc - all very useful, also adding more information for filing - remember that Manchester congestion thingy I rumbled? I did that by looking at the exif data for one of the photos, after seeing 'mom with kids on white background' i knew that it was a) America ('mom') and b) from a stock agency ('on white background') so i went to istockphoto and searched the term and found it... Well I digress, now the iphone also has a gps it puts this info into the exif data as well, thus giving your location away in each photo... its not something I realised until I looked at that photo of yours...[FROM WELL DONE FILLET-NOW REMOVED] maybe worth bearing in mind... there are things that you can do to strip out exif data, and i think, that uploading only to a certain size in blogger might do that."

He also linked to my place of gameful employment, which was nice. Sorry did I say nice? I meant pant wettingly scary. Anyhoo I thought I should let you all know, just incase you worry bout such things. My advice is probably best not to submit photos to Desked that have been taken with your iPhone. But if you do, you do so at yer own risk.

Seriously, you cant take a poo without someone knowing about it....

(This post is a copy of the post on Desked)

20 People trying to get Manuel's attention:

Anonymous said...

Two weeks ago, someone used Google Street View to figure out where I live---and then posted it in the comments section of the Boston blog aggregator that had picked up my post. There are some weird people out there.

Today's word verification: clemelog. That's just wrong. I don't know what it is, but it's wrong.

Triona said...

Yikes Manuel, that's creepy!

Anonymous said...

good to know. i don't have an iPhone, but know that the data is available...

but then again? if someone takes the trouble to track my ass down, figure out where i live, where i work, and all that? i might want to buy them a beer for their trouble! (and lace it with tasty-toxins). stalking is the highest form of flattery, right?

savannah said...

after the incident in march at my place, sugar, i am MOST grateful for this information. i shall pass it along to the appropriate members of the coconut krewe! xoxoxox

The Mistress said...

Will pass this info on to those I know with iPhones.

Thanks.

Killer said...

I am one of those people who try to find out who is who....But I don't try very hard!!!

rsynnott said...

You can remove the data with any photo editor that can edit EXIF data.

Though last I heard, the iPhone didn't include that data by default anyway. Did it ask you if it could use your location when taking the photo?

GOD said...

Really good to know. Thank you, Manny. I don't really care who knows where I am, but I imagine some people have a major clemelog when this happens.

D

Jenny said...

I have an iphone.

EEEEEKKKKKK.

Native Minnow said...

Yikes. That is scary.

Manuel said...

security has been stepped up around fillet towers.....and the cousin has been moved to a secure location......the 2 things are not connected.....

sugarpie said...

Unfortunately, I cant even have a poo without LOTS of people knowing. And it's not because they want to know.

Old Knudsen said...

I don't have an iphone but I have reading glasses, does this apply to me when I take a pic with my camera wearing my iglasses?

Manuel said...

knudsen: yes....yes it does as you very well know....

CyberPete said...

They are always trying to find out where we are, aren't they.

Bloody nosy people.

I love my iPhone though. It's like gods gift to humanity.

Lulu LaBonne said...

Phew I don't have an iphone - does that mean they're not watching me?

Word veri = phoole
how apt

Megan McGurk said...

See, those phones are evil.
Knew it.

rsynnott said...

*Still loves the lovely iPhone*

Even if it is spying on me.

Manuel said...

robert: same here......[strokes lovely iPhone]

Unknown said...

We're probably just one Orwellian step away from having mobile phones/cameras positioned 'live' on Google earth/street.



word verif is 'ockfuhd', an anagram of 'oh fuckd'