Nowadays it is quite common for people to share their status, photo and video with their friends on social networking websites. These are often shared along with exact locations, such as the name of a restaurant or street. This action is called "Geotagging", which is a process of adding geographic location data to media such as photo and video.
To use geotagging, users require the Global Positioning System (GPS) feature on their mobile devices or digital cameras. When they shoot a photo or video, the image is embedded in the metadata, which contains the exact latitude and longitude of the place they shoot. With just a few clicks, users can easily share their geotagged media and let their friends see their information.
What are the risks?
Despite the benefits and fun of sharing geotagged media, users should be careful when using geotagging. Some mobile apps would keep geotagging function on without asking for user permission every single time. Users often ignore this setting and people can randomly track their status. While there might be no threat for a single shared location, but over some time, criminals would probably find the users' life patterns, such as the time a user's home is vacant and its address, working place and even more.
When being located in sensitive areas or buildings, geotagged media might pose an even higher risk to personal safety. In September 2010, three men burgled more than 18 homes in Nashua, New Hampshire, USA. The culprits simply used social networking website to find out people on vacation or out of town because their status updates showed their current locations were not their homes. The culprits finally broke into the victims' homes and took off with more than $100,000 worth of property.
How to minimise geotagging risks?
Stricter privacy settings on social networks - When using social networking websites, users should share their status updates and photos among their friends only. If the location data is not required, users should remove geotags from photos or videos before sharing.
Avoid sharing sensitive information - Avoid sharing any photos or location information of sensitive areas or buildings. This would prevent building designs or other sensitive information from being leaked to unauthorised people. Moreover, as a preventive measure, parents should not share the geotagged media of their children.
Turn off geotagging when not in use - Activate geotagging only when it is required. In some mobile apps, geotagging would often be activated after the first time use.
