6 ms·

There's plenty of use cases for an app to use EXIF. Like if I'm using a gallery app, I want to be able to filter by location. Or people that post online might

by Jonnax 6y ago

There's plenty of use cases for an app to use EXIF. Like if I'm using a gallery app, I want to be able to filter by location. Or people that post online might want to tag their location.

neartheplain 6y ago
Is that the common case? Or put another way, is uploading images with GPS-tagged EXIF data considered safe default behavior? IMO, smartphones should ask the user at least once per site whether to include personally-identifying EXIF info with image uploads. In many cases this is tantamount to sharing location data. It’s also not obvious to non-techie users that 1) photos contain GPS-tagged EXIF data at all, and 2) this data travels with the photo when it’s uploaded via a web form.
- leetcrew 6y ago
  my guess is most people appreciate the convenience of location tagging but haven't thought through the implications of having that info in the image file itself. on the other hand, when you share a picture you're already sharing your coarse location. anyone who recognizes the scene will know roughly where you were. of course, there's a big difference between "this is the NYC skyline" and "this is the NYC skyline as viewed from the northeast corner of my apartment building".
  - neartheplain 6y ago
    >anyone who recognizes the scene will know roughly where you were. Sure, for outdoor photos. GPS data may also be included on photos taken indoors, such as nudes, in which case EXIF data leaks the subject’s home address.
  - iggldiggl 6y ago
    > of course, there's a big difference between "this is the NYC skyline" and "this is the NYC skyline as viewed from the northeast corner of my apartment building". Depending on the picture, you might still be able to go from one to the other even without the benefit of exact location information – in fact that's what I've been doing for old pictures in my photo library. As my backlog is somewhat more than a decade, of course I don't remember where exactly each and every picture had been taken, but when geotagging them there's of course still the temptation to place the location marker as accurately as possible. Given a rough location from my memory, Google Earth, GeoSetter's field-of-view on a map/aerial photography display and occasionally a sun angle calculator I've been able to pinpoint the relatively exact location of quite a number of photos.
- ziddoap 6y ago
  >EXIF data considered safe default behavior? The people who browse HN may think of everything technology-related in a 'safety-first' manner, in my experience most lay people are excited to be able to sort by location (thinking in a 'function-first' manner). If I were to ask my elderly father if he cared that his photographs have location data, it would be a resounding 'I dont care'. Taking the time to try and explain why location data being uploaded may be dangerous would similarly be met with yawns. If I cannot get my non-tech friends and family to realize using the same 7-character password across multiple sites is a bad idea, nor can I stop them from answering Nigerian Prince emails; I'm not sure how to make them realize that EXIF data can be used maliciously. They just.. Don't care.
  - detaro 6y ago
    "you/your kid/... might be leaking your home address to randos that see your posts" is something that more people seem to understand as something that could be a problem.
    - ziddoap 6y ago
      As I mentioned: >Taking the time to try and explain why location data being uploaded may be dangerous would similarly be met with yawns. Yes, I have explained. No, they still don't care (or realize that impact).
    - mcspiff 6y ago
      Not exactly something that was considered private for a long time. Phone books included this for example.
- bliteben 6y ago
  Safari on OSX strips it without an option to enable it. Makes it a very bad experience to use sites like https://www.inaturalist.org/ https://www.inaturalist.org/ of which the exif data is part of the workflow.

by Jonnax 6y ago

There's plenty of use cases for an app to use EXIF. Like if I'm using a gallery app, I want to be able to filter by location. Or people that post online might want to tag their location.

neartheplain 6y ago

Is that the common case? Or put another way, is uploading images with GPS-tagged EXIF data considered safe default behavior? IMO, smartphones should ask the user at least once per site whether to include personally-identifying EXIF info with image uploads. In many cases this is tantamount to sharing location data. It’s also not obvious to non-techie users that 1) photos contain GPS-tagged EXIF data at all, and 2) this data travels with the photo when it’s uploaded via a web form.

leetcrew 6y ago
my guess is most people appreciate the convenience of location tagging but haven't thought through the implications of having that info in the image file itself. on the other hand, when you share a picture you're already sharing your coarse location. anyone who recognizes the scene will know roughly where you were. of course, there's a big difference between "this is the NYC skyline" and "this is the NYC skyline as viewed from the northeast corner of my apartment building".
- neartheplain 6y ago
  >anyone who recognizes the scene will know roughly where you were. Sure, for outdoor photos. GPS data may also be included on photos taken indoors, such as nudes, in which case EXIF data leaks the subject’s home address.
- iggldiggl 6y ago
  > of course, there's a big difference between "this is the NYC skyline" and "this is the NYC skyline as viewed from the northeast corner of my apartment building". Depending on the picture, you might still be able to go from one to the other even without the benefit of exact location information – in fact that's what I've been doing for old pictures in my photo library. As my backlog is somewhat more than a decade, of course I don't remember where exactly each and every picture had been taken, but when geotagging them there's of course still the temptation to place the location marker as accurately as possible. Given a rough location from my memory, Google Earth, GeoSetter's field-of-view on a map/aerial photography display and occasionally a sun angle calculator I've been able to pinpoint the relatively exact location of quite a number of photos.
ziddoap 6y ago
>EXIF data considered safe default behavior? The people who browse HN may think of everything technology-related in a 'safety-first' manner, in my experience most lay people are excited to be able to sort by location (thinking in a 'function-first' manner). If I were to ask my elderly father if he cared that his photographs have location data, it would be a resounding 'I dont care'. Taking the time to try and explain why location data being uploaded may be dangerous would similarly be met with yawns. If I cannot get my non-tech friends and family to realize using the same 7-character password across multiple sites is a bad idea, nor can I stop them from answering Nigerian Prince emails; I'm not sure how to make them realize that EXIF data can be used maliciously. They just.. Don't care.
- detaro 6y ago
  "you/your kid/... might be leaking your home address to randos that see your posts" is something that more people seem to understand as something that could be a problem.
  - ziddoap 6y ago
    As I mentioned: >Taking the time to try and explain why location data being uploaded may be dangerous would similarly be met with yawns. Yes, I have explained. No, they still don't care (or realize that impact).
  - mcspiff 6y ago
    Not exactly something that was considered private for a long time. Phone books included this for example.
bliteben 6y ago
Safari on OSX strips it without an option to enable it. Makes it a very bad experience to use sites like https://www.inaturalist.org/ https://www.inaturalist.org/ of which the exif data is part of the workflow.