this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
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Privacy

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Hiya, so quickly wondering wether you have enabled this or not. Obviously it's not great for privacy, but it also seems very nice to have for image cloud solutions, so that images can be sorted based on location. Are there any good solutions for this? I'd like have it enabled, but also afraid of sharing images with sensitive metadata in them.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 7 months ago

I used to not but I wish I did. I want to know where pictures were taken. Photo album software like Immich can also make cool maps out of your photos this way and group photos by location.

As long as you're not sharing the pictures with anyone, there is no loss of privacy whatsoever in doing this. I don't see any reason to generally label it as "not great for privacy".

When sharing publicly, you need to be careful of course and run the images through an EXIF metadata stripper.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yes of course. Noone has access to the pictures but me. And even if some gov agency would get access to it. And then? It's historic data. They know where I live, where I work. And then they know that I go out hiking each week. So what? And that's only if they get access to it. If the locate my phone they have a live position of me. Photos are nothing bad. Hackers? My address is more valuable. Foreign people? Have no access

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

All valid points, I was more thinking about in the cases of sharing the pictures online - with others. Something I do occasionally at least. But find it a bit tedious to make sure the metadata from those are gone.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

See my other comment https://lemmy.ml/comment/10326478

Currentl, the best image maps have immich and nextcloud I guess

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago

Shoutout to https://f-droid.org/en/packages/deckers.thibault.aves.libre/, which shows your pictures on a map without any cloud service.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)

If you share something with ANY metadata, either delete or encrypt it before sharing

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Right, it's just a tedious process doing that each time you were to share something...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It is not, there are apps that do all that for you. E.g. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.jarsilio.android.scrambledeggsif/ couldn't be easier

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Nice find! Thanks for sharing :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

A lot of platforms strip out the meta data. All social media platforms and all messengers I've tried strip out the meta data. There might be some that don't?

Does the meta get stripped locally or on their servers though? I suspect locally.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Thanks for reminder!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

I do, but use a exif scrambler if I post online

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I would like to have that info for my own photos, but I don't have location services on unless I need them anyway, so it would be pointless.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I do. Most sites strip metadata from images anyways. If you're super worried about it, you can just remove the metadata in windows (or your other os) or prior to upload.

I keep it on because I use my phone for geotagging trees on campus for labs.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I just host my own photo backup service and outside of Lemmy, I don't use social media.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I believe I have it turned on still. Any time I upload my pictures I use ffshare though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

i do, and together with nextcloud's map application you get a full view of which image was taken where.

just feels really cool after a half decade to have so many pictures so far away, all at one glance.

also, in the current age of large machine learning models, it is scarily easy to use one of these to guess the location. it's like the colkective hive mind of geoguesser players working together, so if one really wants to find ur location based on ur pictures, they really dont even need the metadata anymore

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Edit:

  • wording was corrected and grammer/format as well
  • improved wording and phrasing, a bit

Great feature, but no!

Generally I make sure to take enough pics to have an idea of the area I was in.

In addition , I also carry a small note pad, to write down cords., so that I may frequent said areas in the future.

Another option, is to manually pin locations on an open source apk map; this device of choice, would have limited network connections and any data saved would be encrypted.

Exampl apk: OSM Automated Navigation Directions

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No. Just in case I forget to remove the information if I post it anywhere.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Whenever I post a picture, I post a screenshot of the picture. It's good enough quality for posting online, and ensures that there is no metadata on it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

Haha now I know your screen resolution

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Having the location feature enabled is already against privacy in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No, it's not. That's only if you share them using an online service that didn't remove the metadata and also don't strip it out yourself. That's like saying keeping personal data on your device is against privacy! If that's the case, just get rid of it at that point...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I keep location, WiFi, and Bluetooth off always. To each their own.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

To each their own.

Totally agree. But hamstringing your own devices to potentially protect the data that never leaves your control anyway seems like a disservice to yourself. Again, if you have no data, location, or BT... What's the point of paying for the device/service?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

There is data. I said location, WiFi, and Bluetooth. I don't need them for anything I do.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Yes, I don't think some people on this community care as much, when it comes to location sharing with cell phone manufacturer and apks that have access to that data.

Not fully off grid all the time.