Finding Picture Locations
Contributors to this thread:General Topic
From: DL
21-Nov-17
DL's Link
Well this is interesting. I don’t know how many of you have heard of “Metadata”? If you have a secret hunting area and take pictures with a fairly new cell phone it might not be Secret for long if you share your pictures. The link will explain how A picture location can be determined. Let’s say someone in California takes a picture of a dead lion they claim they shot legally in Oregon and post the picture on a forum. Or a deer they claimed they shot during a regular season.
From: Nick Muche
21-Nov-17
Pretty easy to turn off...
From: APauls
21-Nov-17
I have checked the odd picture from my buddies, and told them exactly where they shot an elk and said you might want to change that setting on your phone!! Few people screw this up anymore. But yes, it's a real thing.
From: Keef
21-Nov-17
Thanks for sharing. Didn't know that information was embedded in the files.
From: Fulldraw1972
21-Nov-17
Somehow on the latest update for my phone it switched from dates to location in my gallery on my phone.
Haven’t really thought much about it. Guess I figured I had nothing to hide.
From: Ermine
21-Nov-17
I don’t use my phone for pics. Use my camera. And I only share a fraction of the pics I take
From: DL
21-Nov-17
It’s not about hiding illegal things it’s about hiding a favorite hunting or fishing location that only you know it’s location.
From: buzz mc
21-Nov-17
"I don’t use my phone for pics. Use my camera" Same here. I just use an OTG card reader to post them.
From: drycreek
21-Nov-17
How do you turn this off on iPhones ? I’m technologically challenged !
From: oldgoat
21-Nov-17
Most phones you have to turn it and the GPS function on, if you have your GPS turned off and take a picture and it doesn't pop up asking you to turn on GPS then it's turned off. I pretty much leave my GPS turned off normally unless I'm actually using a Navigation AP of some sort.
From: Franklin
22-Nov-17
Your "Smart Phones" can be tracked regardless if the GPS is on or off.
From: WapitiBob
22-Nov-17
Dry, it's under "location services" in settings and is app specific. turn it off for the phone app when you don't want the location embedded, turn it on when you do (picture waypoints).
From: APauls
22-Nov-17
On an iPhone go to Settings>Privacy>Location Services>Camera and touch "Never."
From: Panhandle Bob
22-Nov-17
It's not just phones...cameras can also have a geo tagging feature.
From: elkstabber
22-Nov-17
APauls: thanks, that made it simple.
But I still haven't seen this work. If a photo is shared by text I can't see how to access the lat/long. If a photo is shared on Facebook I can click on it and hit properties but there isn't a "Detail" tab so there is no way to get the lat/long.
From: Panhandle Bob
22-Nov-17
With software like paintshop pro, photo shop, etc..you can access the metadata quite easily..
From: Charlie Rehor
22-Nov-17
As others have mentioned you just turn it off. I had dropped my canon camera to go with just the iPhone photos but found the resolution just wasn’t there for sharing or making 8x10’s so the Canon is back in my pack!
From: elkstabber
22-Nov-17
Serious question. I haven't found an example that works yet. Here is a photo of a coyote that I snared yesterday. Can anybody tell me the location? I couldn't find it. And if you can find the location (southeastern Virginia) then how about sharing how you found it?
From: eddie c
22-Nov-17
on my trip to CO this year I had my 'location' setting on to find the nearest campground. when I stopped at a rest area and took a picture of something, 5 minutes later I had a message from Google requesting my to 'share the photo'. now every time I have the location on and I pass by anything that Google has a pushpin placed in their system, I get a request 'to share my experience at ******'. they're tracking us!!!!!!!
From: WapitiBob
22-Nov-17
If you take a picture, then save it to your pc and look at the properties/details tab, the gps data will be there if location is turned on for the phone app. Location is app specific, it has to be enabled separately for the phone just like it does for OnX or GAIA. If a picture is posted to a web forum ie; Bowsite, the location data is usually stripped.
From: elkstabber
22-Nov-17
Aaahhhhh.... So this location is only for photos that are texted or emailed?
From: Vids
22-Nov-17
I don't get it either. It was turned on on my phone, but the GPS coordinates are never listed under properties when I go to look for that.
From: Ace
22-Nov-17
You guys just outed Pat, you know he's a computer genius, right? This is the whole reason he started Bowsite, to figure out great places to hunt based on the location data on pictures you guys post. Me, I throw him off by only taking pictures of small deer and squirrels. :-)
From: WapitiBob
22-Nov-17
"Aaahhhhh.... So this location is only for photos that are texted or emailed? "
No, you asked about a photo shared by text.
Any picture that has the location data embedded within, can have that location extracted if that picture has not been modified. If you text an image from your phone to a friend, the location is "usually" intact because there is no modification of the image/data. If you copy from phone to your pc, the data is intact. If you post to an internet forum, where the site modifies the image, "usually", the location data is stripped. The location data was intact when I posted that Bear picture above.
From: Paul
22-Nov-17
Friend sent me a pic of IL buck they killed and I found the spot they killed it very easy be Carefull
