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Home ＞ Location information hidden in photos?!

Experiments


　※This experiment was conducted as a teaching tool to let everyone know that the leakage of fingerprint information can be dangerous. Please do not imitate the method of this experiment or use it for any malicious purpose.

Location information hidden in photos?!


　The number of junior and senior high school students who post photos on social media is increasing.
　However, the photos that we take without even thinking about it contain location information. you post them on social networking sites, you can find out where you were at what time you were there just from the information in the photos. 。 In fact, some junior and senior high school students have been victimized by having their homes identified by location information from photos.
　Let's work together to prevent that kind of damage!

Dangers you need to know about!


　In this article, I will tell you whether location information can really be determined from photos, and how to stop location information from being leaked.

Can you really get location information from a photo?


　We decided to check if the location information was really included in the photo.
　All you need to prepare are smartphones A and B with the location settings turned on. First, we took a picture of the school with Smartphone A and sent the picture to Smartphone B. I then checked to see if the photo contained the school's location information, as seen from Smartphone B, to which the photo was received.


loation information_photo
Photographs of the school taken with Smartphone A

　From the above photo, we can see that the smartphone A photo taken records not only the location information but also the date and time the photo was taken in detail.
　Next, let's send this photo to Smartphone B.

loation information_photo
Left: Smartphone A with the photo taken　Right: Smartphone B with the photo was received.

loation information_photo
Smartphone B to which the photo was received.

　Turns out, you can check the date, time, and location of the photo on the map from Smartphone B!
　Therefore, we were able to prove that the photo contains location information. If the photo you sent was taken at home, there is a good chance that your address can be identified from the photo.
　So how can we hide the location information contained in the photos?

Countermeasure!


　We will tell you how you can prevent location information from being leaked.
　The first way to get rid of location information is to turn off the location settings on your smartphone. Since the method of setting this differs depending on the model of smartphone, below is a website that clearly explains how to change the location settings for each model.

　 　　・iPhone 　　「Turning Location Services and GPS on and off on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.」(https://support.apple.com/ja-jp/HT207092)
　　　・Android 　　「How to turn off the location information」(https://android-smart-phone.com/20190207/)

　There are also other things we can do ourselves to prevent our location information from being leaked. "It is to use an app to remove location information from photos". Even if you have already taken a photo that contains location information, you can use the app to delete the location information after.
　The following is an introduction to the application.

　　　・「Remove Exif from photos，Photo Secure」(https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/%E5%86%99%E7%9C%9F%E3%81%AEexif%E5%89%8A%E9%99%A4-photo-secure/id1132792188)

　Have you actually confirmed that your photos contain location information?
　To protect yourself, take proactive measures such as turning off the location settings.


〇References
・荻窪圭，「Google フォト」で地図から写真を探せるようになった！　その使い勝手は？ (Google Photos now allows you to search for photos by map!　How easy is it to use?)，2020/7/23，(https://www.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/2007/23/news028_2.html)，(accessed 2021/9/3)
・りんごの使い方，【iPhone・iPad】写真や動画の撮影場所を知る方法 (【iPhone・iPad】How to know where the photo or video was taken.)，2021/2/28，(https://iphone-manual.net/can-i-see-geotag-data-on-iphone-ipad/)，(accessed 2021/9/13)
　

Home ＞ Location information hidden in photos?!

Experiments


　※This experiment was conducted as a teaching tool to let everyone know that the leakage of fingerprint information can be dangerous. Please do not imitate the method of this experiment or use it for any malicious purpose.

Location information hidden in photos?!


　The number of junior and senior high school students who post photos on social media is increasing.
　However, the photos that we take without even thinking about it contain location information. you post them on social networking sites, you can find out where you were at what time you were there just from the information in the photos. 。 In fact, some junior and senior high school students have been victimized by having their homes identified by location information from photos.
　Let's work together to prevent that kind of damage!

Dangers you need to know about!


　In this article, I will tell you whether location information can really be determined from photos, and how to stop location information from being leaked.

Can you really get location information from a photo?


　We decided to check if the location information was really included in the photo.
　All you need to prepare are smartphones A and B with the location settings turned on. First, we took a picture of the school with Smartphone A and sent the picture to Smartphone B. I then checked to see if the photo contained the school's location information, as seen from Smartphone B, to which the photo was received.


loation information_photo
Photographs of the school taken with Smartphone A

　From the above photo, we can see that the smartphone A photo taken records not only the location information but also the date and time the photo was taken in detail.
　Next, let's send this photo to Smartphone B.

loation information_photo
Left: Smartphone A with the photo taken　Right: Smartphone B with the photo was received.

loation information_photo
Smartphone B to which the photo was received.

　Turns out, you can check the date, time, and location of the photo on the map from Smartphone B!
　Therefore, we were able to prove that the photo contains location information. If the photo you sent was taken at home, there is a good chance that your address can be identified from the photo.
　So how can we hide the location information contained in the photos?

Countermeasure!


　We will tell you how you can prevent location information from being leaked.
　The first way to get rid of location information is to turn off the location settings on your smartphone. Since the method of setting this differs depending on the model of smartphone, below is a website that clearly explains how to change the location settings for each model.

　 　　・iPhone 　　「Turning Location Services and GPS on and off on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.」(https://support.apple.com/ja-jp/HT207092)
　　　・Android 　　「How to turn off the location information」(https://android-smart-phone.com/20190207/)

　There are also other things we can do ourselves to prevent our location information from being leaked. "It is to use an app to remove location information from photos". Even if you have already taken a photo that contains location information, you can use the app to delete the location information after.
　The following is an introduction to the application.

　　　・「Remove Exif from photos，Photo Secure」(https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/%E5%86%99%E7%9C%9F%E3%81%AEexif%E5%89%8A%E9%99%A4-photo-secure/id1132792188)

　Have you actually confirmed that your photos contain location information?
　To protect yourself, take proactive measures such as turning off the location settings.


〇References
・荻窪圭，「Google フォト」で地図から写真を探せるようになった！　その使い勝手は？ (Google Photos now allows you to search for photos by map!　How easy is it to use?)，2020/7/23，(https://www.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/2007/23/news028_2.html)，(accessed 2021/9/3)
・りんごの使い方，【iPhone・iPad】写真や動画の撮影場所を知る方法 (【iPhone・iPad】How to know where the photo or video was taken.)，2021/2/28，(https://iphone-manual.net/can-i-see-geotag-data-on-iphone-ipad/)，(accessed 2021/9/13)
全国中学高校Webコンテスト
This web-based material is participating in the 24th Japan Junior high school/high school Web contest.
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