5 ms·

Finding McAfee: a case study on geoprofiling and imagery analysis

121 points by danso 7y ago

qtplatypus 7y ago
I bet that this guy is very good at geoguesser
ackbar03 7y ago
So did you get that beer?
netsharc 7y ago
So it's "locate someone by seeing what's in the background of his pictures and tweets" but make it sound sophisticated? IMINT? Geoprofiling? Pretentious much?
- zenexer 7y ago
  It’s a real, professional skill used in intelligence, among other industries. It’s not as easy as the author makes it sound.
  - casefields 7y ago
    Whenever posts like this or BellingCat pop up, they always seem stupidly easy. Is this really some special skill that I didn't realize I had? It feels like it's just a visual aspect to someone's Google-fu ability, with a dash of critical thinking.
    - patrec 7y ago
      Well, did you stop reading the article past the pic, do it yourself from scratch and finish in 10 minutes, or did you just nod along each time?
  - Hitton 7y ago
    It's skill, but I would hardly call it professional. Anons on 4chan do regularly much more impressive stuff. The gas station in this case made it particularly easy, anyone with a bit of experience from stuff like geoguesser and similar quizzes can find it easily. That's why I too consider calling this a "case study" pretentious.
    - ShorsHammer 7y ago
      The 4chan instance with Shia Lebouf was an amazing read. After months of harassment over the He Will Not Divide Us art project Shia moved it to a livestreamed flagpole with nothing but the sky as the background. In under 48 hours they mapped various contrails to flight lanes, matched up star constellations at night using celestial navigation and correlated weather to pinpoint the flags location. Then they went and stole it. Ignoring the childishness of it all, it was some impressive crowdsourced investigative work given nothing but an empty sky to work with.
      - Scoundreller 7y ago
        I thought the last step was driving around town honking their horn until they heard it on the webcam stream.
- aliswe 7y ago
  Doesn't strike me as pretentious at all but perhaps your background varies
xioxox 7y ago
If you like the idea of trying to identify a location from a photo, take a look at a competition that regularly tried to do this, View From My Window: http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/vfyw-contest/ http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/vfyw-contest/ . Some of it was truly impressive detective work.
- detaro 7y ago
  https://twitter.com/quiztime https://twitter.com/quiztime also has (probably easier) challenges like this.
ubercow13 7y ago
For another example of doing this, see this one from a couple of years back: https://twitter.com/BBCAfrica/status/1044186344153583616 https://twitter.com/BBCAfrica/status/1044186344153583616
- Hitton 7y ago
  This one is actually impressive deserving to be called "case study", unlike the Medium article.
blantonl 7y ago
Some of these exact techniques, but far more in-depth, have been used to track down and locate child predators who have uploaded images to the internet.
- raxxorrax 7y ago
  There was also this feet fetishist on reddit that could clear up that an image was clearly a fake since he already knew the feet in particular from another photo. He even got praise from the press for his specialist knowledge that was able to close the case. Don't know the details on the story and why it was important to determine an image fake or not, but I liked the ambivalent praise he got for his skills.
  - 2038AD 7y ago
    I believe this was in regards to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's feet.
jacquesm 7y ago
There was a thread on Twitter by someone who figured out where that storage locker was of the guy that tried to corner the market on hand sanitizer for profiteering: https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski/status/1239306776153071618 https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski/status/123930677615307161...
AndrewStephens 7y ago
This is interesting and mirrors a very old short story I read when I was a kid about some futuristic detective that never left the house, instead just solved missing persons cases by analyzing details in photographs. This was all pre-internet so the author (whom I've long since forgotten) was very prescient. But this is John McAfee we are talking about - how soon can we lose him again?
- santoshalper 7y ago
  Also, this is John McAfee, a man who literally never shuts up and will probably blurt out exactly where he is and what he is doing with little or no prompting or provocation. The real insight to me is that if you don't want people to stalk you - stop snitching on yourself online constantly.
- hguant 7y ago
  >some futuristic detective that never left the house, instead just solved missing persons cases by analyzing details in photograph Your futuristic detective has the same M.O. as Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's older and reclusive brother who stayed at home or at his club where no one was allowed to speak (except in a small antechamber and then in no more than a whisper); Holmes the Younger would occasionally visit when he was stumped, or needed some bit of information he hadn't written a monograph on. If I recall correctly, the point was that while Sherlock was all about deductive reasoning (here are all my little clues, what do they add up to), Mycroft was a master of inductive reasoning (here is my thesis, if this thesis is true, here are all the details that must exist _somewhere_). Tangentially, Mycroft was the full name of the computer that gains sentience in Heinlein's _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_; very smart, but by nature of being a multi-ton computer system, something of a recluse.
ColanR 7y ago
I think there was also a time the folks on 4chan managed to locate a terrorist base, which Russia then followed up on. I don't remember the details.
pontifier 7y ago
It's surprising how much you can tell from videos or images like this. I often get a sense of familiarity when watching videos online. If a picture or video was shot outside, anywhere along the Wasatch front in Utah, I'm almost guaranteed to be able to pinpoint the location. It's kind of a fun game.
afpx 7y ago
It would have been even more interesting if they could locate the place of the photo without knowing the general area where he was.
ukoki 7y ago
If you want to see this taken up a few levels check out the incredible work done by Bellingcat to identify times and locations where minors were sexually abused in Cambodia. Includes consideration of Mango tree growth speeds, among other things I definitely would never have thought of. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2019/12/17/two-europol-stopchildabuse-images-geolocated-part-ii-cambodia/ https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2019/12/17/two-europol-stopc... (SFW)
- ukoki 7y ago
  Also related is the recent three-part Netflix documentary Don't Fk with Cats on the Internet https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81031373 https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81031373
Scoundreller 7y ago
Wasn’t there a case where a guy put up a webcam at his « He Will Not Divide Us » flag, so 4chan narrowed it down by flight patterns and celestial navigation, and had someone drive around town honking his horn until they heard it. Then took the flag down and posted it on 4chan.
- sigwinch28 7y ago
  Yes, The Internet Historian on YouTube has made a series of videos about this: "HWNDU" (He Will Not Divide Us). It started with a flag outside in a public place [0], followed by being moved to a flagpole in the middle of nowhere (the one you're thinking of) [1]. The flag was then moved into a museum in Liverpool [2], and finally it was moved indoors with a camera pointing at a plain white painted wall [3]. Beware: lots of memes and occasionally offensive language. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p4h3jwJob0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p4h3jwJob0 [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw9zyxm860Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw9zyxm860Q [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aZuj_SDqDo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aZuj_SDqDo [3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_ldHq3NzC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_ldHq3NzC0

121 points by danso 7y ago

qtplatypus 7y ago

I bet that this guy is very good at geoguesser

ackbar03 7y ago

So did you get that beer?

netsharc 7y ago

So it's "locate someone by seeing what's in the background of his pictures and tweets" but make it sound sophisticated? IMINT? Geoprofiling? Pretentious much?

zenexer 7y ago
It’s a real, professional skill used in intelligence, among other industries. It’s not as easy as the author makes it sound.
- casefields 7y ago
  Whenever posts like this or BellingCat pop up, they always seem stupidly easy. Is this really some special skill that I didn't realize I had? It feels like it's just a visual aspect to someone's Google-fu ability, with a dash of critical thinking.
  - patrec 7y ago
    Well, did you stop reading the article past the pic, do it yourself from scratch and finish in 10 minutes, or did you just nod along each time?
- Hitton 7y ago
  It's skill, but I would hardly call it professional. Anons on 4chan do regularly much more impressive stuff. The gas station in this case made it particularly easy, anyone with a bit of experience from stuff like geoguesser and similar quizzes can find it easily. That's why I too consider calling this a "case study" pretentious.
  - ShorsHammer 7y ago
    The 4chan instance with Shia Lebouf was an amazing read. After months of harassment over the He Will Not Divide Us art project Shia moved it to a livestreamed flagpole with nothing but the sky as the background. In under 48 hours they mapped various contrails to flight lanes, matched up star constellations at night using celestial navigation and correlated weather to pinpoint the flags location. Then they went and stole it. Ignoring the childishness of it all, it was some impressive crowdsourced investigative work given nothing but an empty sky to work with.
    - Scoundreller 7y ago
      I thought the last step was driving around town honking their horn until they heard it on the webcam stream.
aliswe 7y ago
Doesn't strike me as pretentious at all but perhaps your background varies

xioxox 7y ago

If you like the idea of trying to identify a location from a photo, take a look at a competition that regularly tried to do this, View From My Window: http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/vfyw-contest/ http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/vfyw-contest/ . Some of it was truly impressive detective work.

detaro 7y ago
https://twitter.com/quiztime https://twitter.com/quiztime also has (probably easier) challenges like this.

ubercow13 7y ago

For another example of doing this, see this one from a couple of years back: https://twitter.com/BBCAfrica/status/1044186344153583616 https://twitter.com/BBCAfrica/status/1044186344153583616

Hitton 7y ago
This one is actually impressive deserving to be called "case study", unlike the Medium article.

blantonl 7y ago

Some of these exact techniques, but far more in-depth, have been used to track down and locate child predators who have uploaded images to the internet.

raxxorrax 7y ago
There was also this feet fetishist on reddit that could clear up that an image was clearly a fake since he already knew the feet in particular from another photo. He even got praise from the press for his specialist knowledge that was able to close the case. Don't know the details on the story and why it was important to determine an image fake or not, but I liked the ambivalent praise he got for his skills.
- 2038AD 7y ago
  I believe this was in regards to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's feet.

jacquesm 7y ago

There was a thread on Twitter by someone who figured out where that storage locker was of the guy that tried to corner the market on hand sanitizer for profiteering: https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski/status/1239306776153071618 https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski/status/123930677615307161...

AndrewStephens 7y ago

This is interesting and mirrors a very old short story I read when I was a kid about some futuristic detective that never left the house, instead just solved missing persons cases by analyzing details in photographs. This was all pre-internet so the author (whom I've long since forgotten) was very prescient. But this is John McAfee we are talking about - how soon can we lose him again?

santoshalper 7y ago
Also, this is John McAfee, a man who literally never shuts up and will probably blurt out exactly where he is and what he is doing with little or no prompting or provocation. The real insight to me is that if you don't want people to stalk you - stop snitching on yourself online constantly.
hguant 7y ago
>some futuristic detective that never left the house, instead just solved missing persons cases by analyzing details in photograph Your futuristic detective has the same M.O. as Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's older and reclusive brother who stayed at home or at his club where no one was allowed to speak (except in a small antechamber and then in no more than a whisper); Holmes the Younger would occasionally visit when he was stumped, or needed some bit of information he hadn't written a monograph on. If I recall correctly, the point was that while Sherlock was all about deductive reasoning (here are all my little clues, what do they add up to), Mycroft was a master of inductive reasoning (here is my thesis, if this thesis is true, here are all the details that must exist _somewhere_). Tangentially, Mycroft was the full name of the computer that gains sentience in Heinlein's _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_; very smart, but by nature of being a multi-ton computer system, something of a recluse.

ColanR 7y ago

I think there was also a time the folks on 4chan managed to locate a terrorist base, which Russia then followed up on. I don't remember the details.

pontifier 7y ago

It's surprising how much you can tell from videos or images like this. I often get a sense of familiarity when watching videos online. If a picture or video was shot outside, anywhere along the Wasatch front in Utah, I'm almost guaranteed to be able to pinpoint the location. It's kind of a fun game.

afpx 7y ago

It would have been even more interesting if they could locate the place of the photo without knowing the general area where he was.

ukoki 7y ago

If you want to see this taken up a few levels check out the incredible work done by Bellingcat to identify times and locations where minors were sexually abused in Cambodia. Includes consideration of Mango tree growth speeds, among other things I definitely would never have thought of. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2019/12/17/two-europol-stopchildabuse-images-geolocated-part-ii-cambodia/ https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2019/12/17/two-europol-stopc... (SFW)

ukoki 7y ago
Also related is the recent three-part Netflix documentary Don't Fk with Cats on the Internet https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81031373 https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81031373

Scoundreller 7y ago

Wasn’t there a case where a guy put up a webcam at his « He Will Not Divide Us » flag, so 4chan narrowed it down by flight patterns and celestial navigation, and had someone drive around town honking his horn until they heard it. Then took the flag down and posted it on 4chan.

sigwinch28 7y ago
Yes, The Internet Historian on YouTube has made a series of videos about this: "HWNDU" (He Will Not Divide Us). It started with a flag outside in a public place [0], followed by being moved to a flagpole in the middle of nowhere (the one you're thinking of) [1]. The flag was then moved into a museum in Liverpool [2], and finally it was moved indoors with a camera pointing at a plain white painted wall [3]. Beware: lots of memes and occasionally offensive language. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p4h3jwJob0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p4h3jwJob0 [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw9zyxm860Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw9zyxm860Q [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aZuj_SDqDo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aZuj_SDqDo [3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_ldHq3NzC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_ldHq3NzC0