Digital Camera Picture signatures

[Sativa Dragon]

It is worth Mentioning that there is a known forensic science that exploits the GPS feature on some photographic capable electronics such as phones and cameras that allow you to know where you took the picture... Like where geographically. Before takeing Pics with a new device or the one you are currently using it is worth doing some homework to find out whether or not your device tags a GPS location to your photos before you post them. I am not totally boned up on all of this so it would be interedting to se some dialogue on the subject. I got the heads up from a Police story on the radio where they found some dude who was posting rude shit on the net and they got some original pics etc... and located the Purp.

Please advise all in the know.

Peace

 

[Harry Gypsna]

There is a sticky thread above the main thread in this section, titled "Metadata 101"
That covers all this stuff and tells you how to go about cleaning you images of this sensitive info.

 

[Sativa Dragon]

Ahh!! Thank you!!

 

[Blue Socks]

I have a smart phone and I have looked at all my menus but don't see anything specifically related to removing "exif" data from photos and whatnot. If I just turn off the GPS will that suffice or is there some secret menu that I'm not seeing? I have a Samsung Infuse

 

[ScrubNinja]

Blue Socks, it depends what OS of smart phone. If you're using Android, technically just disabling the GPS should stop any apps from accessing the GPS location. However I would definitely find the option to turn it off manually from within your system or camera app, because there are other ways it can know your location, such as the mobile or wifi network you're connected to.

For instance someone sent me photos taken on an ipod, which doesn't even have a GPS chip, yet they were location tagged (not quite as pin-point accurate as GPS though, but close) via the network they were on.

 

[ItsTopShelf]

gota be careful eh .. this makes u think.. what the hell does the government NOT KNOW?

 

[Blue Socks]

Good advice SN, I turned everything off as much as I could. The phone app doesn't have any location settings in the menus so I just assume that turning the GPS off should be enough. Not that I'm really hiding, I'm not growing huge crops just enough for personal so if someone wants to waster their time over less than 10 plants, then let them come lol. I'm about a week from harvest was debating about posting pics from my phone but I guess I'll just do it.

I.T.S. the government knows way too much already, from the time you're born to the time you die they're trying to get your info. Shit is out of control

 

[Secrecy]

There's an app on IOS that's called deGEO that removes all exif data from your images

 

[Agaricus]

I doubt that "turning off" the gps really turns it off. Just doesn't display the data.

I don't know for sure, don't have any devices with gps, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't still put the data into the picture file.

 

[johnnybravo]

http://gizmodo.com/5947385/scary-ne...phone-to-make-a-map-of-your-house-for-robbers

 

[qupee]

http://gizmodo.com/5947385/scary-ne...phone-to-make-a-map-of-your-house-for-robbers

An accurate assessment from the comments on that page:

Sigh...more Gizmodo BS.

1) This is not in the wild. It was a proof of concept, and not a particularly creative one at that.
2) This is not run by "robbers" and robbers have no access to it or to the server where the images are sent.
3) It doesn't "hijack" your phone's camera. It is a camera app that sends its pics to a server. You have to actually let it take the pictures.
4) It has to be intentionally installed on the phone by the phone's owner.
5) It doesn't have infection/spreading ability. Again, it has to be manually installed.
6) Gizmodo is so full of shit it's not funny.

I doubt that "turning off" the gps really turns it off. Just doesn't display the data.

I don't know for sure, don't have any devices with gps, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't still put the data into the picture file.

On Android, when you turn off GPS it turns off the GPS receiver radio hardware. GPS coordinates cannot be received and therefore cannot be stored in a photo (you may have to go farther to turn off cell-tower based location data, I'm too lazy to pick up my phone and look at the menu right now). I cannot comment on how iOS devices work, however.

 

[ScrubNinja]

I doubt that "turning off" the gps really turns it off. Just doesn't display the data.

I'm sure it would be in the documentation, but frankly it's just a well known fact and easy to test for yourself.

However, and I'm talking about Android here, you have to remember it's a tricky little system. If one of you was to leave your droid with me for an hour or two, I could easily own it and have it send everything you do back to me. Locations (even if those options are turned off!), passwords, photos, whatever.

You may have heard of an app called Tasker, and that is how I would achieve that, rooting the phone if necessary. But the point I'm getting at is that anything Tasker can do, every other app or app developer can potentially do those things, if it were programmed to. And if GPS is disabled on my rooted phone, Tasker can enable it based on all sorts of triggers. (How about "If screen is off and the time is a random time between 3 & 5am, enable GPS, compose an email with the GPS coordinates and attach the previous 24hrs lo-fi ambient sound recordings, and email it to busted@dea.com).

I heard there is even malware now that will root your phone if it's not already, giving it superuser (root) access.

A half clued up person would use Tasker to make the following rule: "If GPS is enabled, then disable GPS."

A fully clued up person is not gonna use a phone, lol.

Android location settings are @ Settings > Location Services > on mine I disable all three options there.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-assaulted-man-tracked-her-blog-rape-her.html

 

[ScrubNinja]

I forgot to mention - an app getting my location doesn't even bother me that much. There is only so worried I'm going to get about Angry Birds tumbling the glorious 600w empire that I have come to rule the crime world with, and life is too filled with paranoia to go worrying about the little stuff.

As far as my understanding goes, any time your cell is on, it's talking to the surrounding phone towers. This talk is continuously logged and it's trivial to convert it to like, a map or chart, or even a map of who you talk to and who they talk to and so on.

Again just my understanding, but the authorities in my country, right down to the local council or tax dept, can access that info any time they desire, with no warrant. Regardless if they need a warrant or not, I can think of one case I know about personally where this info was used to locate someone very quickly in a very remote area. That was close to ten years ago I guess, so yeah, I'd be very careful where phones (even non-smart ones) are concerned.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Many ways to get rid of EXIF data on windows or linux machines.

I use this utility for Mac now. Easy to use.. $15 if you dont want a watermark on your images. imt exif remover


A word to the wise. Just because law enforcement needs a warrant to access certain data does NOT mean that they don't access such data without one. The warrant is merely for legalizing such action to make it admissible in court.

Those that think that LEO don't ever do such investigative work without warrant are living in a fairy tale world. They simply use this no warrant intel as an identifier in which they would further look into your life (trash pulls, etc).. and use those normal tactics to get a warrant... thus not even needing the red tape involved with "confidential" data from ISP providers or Electrical Companies.

Don't underestimate their tactics.. warrants are not your saving grace...and even so they can get warrants easily...its what they do every day. Judges don't even read that shit. They just sign off on them so they can get back to their other vices.