| Liz: | Tonight a new privacy issue that affects anyone who has ever posted a photo online. New technology in cameras and cell phones can tell exactly where those photos were taken, and it can be just as dangerous as posting your home address for anyone to see. Eyewitness News reporter Jeff Pegues is in the newsroom tonight with more on how it works and how to protect yourself. Jeff… |
| Jeff: | And Liz, as you know technology is something that can be a big help, but it can also potentially be dangerous as well. This is a story that really came as a surprise to a lot of people because there a lot of folks out there who don't know that their pictures can be a road map to their location. |
| Adam: | ‘Give us a break! ‘ |
| Jeff: | Adam Savage is a smart tech savvy guy. But when he posted a picture of his car out in front of his house, he didn’t know at the time that he was actually putting his address on the internet. |
| Adam: | I think people need to know what they want to let out online, and what they don't, and they need to draw a pretty clear line. |
| Field Reporter: | Geo tagging embeds the exact location of where that photo was taken within about fifteen feet. That's pretty accurate. |
| Jeff: | This feature is built into many of our GPS enabled cameras and almost all smart phones. ABC News tech correspondent Becky Worley used her morning coffee as an example. |
| Becky: | So I took this nondescript photo of my cup of coffee this morning. Can you tell me where I was?’ |
| Bill: | Yes I can. Go right-click. And say ‘view images of data’. And it gives you all kinds of Information. |
| Becky: | Yeah. That's where I took the picture of the coffee. |
| Bill: | So let's assume you are a thief. Or, let's assume you want to stalk somebody. Can you do it? And shockingly enough we found out .Yes we can do it and it’s actually pretty easy. |
| Jeff: | We sent an intern out to take pictures of a simulated normal day where she eats, goes to a flower shop, her bus stop, the office and of course where she might live. Just from the pictures she posted on Twitter, someone could map her regular routine and she had no idea. To highlight the issue, a website called ‘I can stalk you’ scans Twitter posts for pictures with geo tags. This picture of a cat shows a home address in rural Illinois. A mum took this picture of her daughter's new shoes and revealed the exact location of their house in California. And our researchers found pictures of jewelry on Craig’s List that embedded the owner’s exact location. |
| Adam: | In my case early on it was laziness that let those pictures go up…uh... I won’t be so lazy again in the future. |
| Jeff: | Yeah, it’s certainly a good lesson for those of us who want to keep our locations private. And if you'd like more information on this story you can go to our website at ‘sevenonline.com’. Listen the fact is, some people want their location to be known and some websites are actually helping their users do that. Facebook, for example, just introduced a feature that allows you to connect with other users who might be just down the street. It can give pinpoint location. It's called Facebook Places. Liz, hopefully it’s a feature that we can turn off. |
| Liz: | I certainly hope so, but who would want that? Why… well I mean… too much information. |
| Jeff: | Too much information. |
| Liz: | But a fascinating piece, Jeff. Thank you very much. Just really remarkable what technology… |
| Other news room reporter: | …I’ve got a kind of uneasy feeling… |
