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So if you remove ALL the metadata from a photo, including the time it was taken, how likely is it that the location can be guessed? Asking for a friend. (Assum

So if you remove ALL the metadata from a photo, including the time it was taken, how likely is it that the location can be guessed? Asking for a friend. (Assume the sky isn't visible.)

hatthew 2y ago
Extremely dependent on the photo, but generally more doable that most people assume. Geowizard on youtube has a series where he guesses the location of arbitrary photos sent to him by subscribers, and he has quite a high success rate. Even without being a wizard at geography, an amateur can make a solid attempt just by being intelligent about using the clues available.
HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
https://geospy.ai/ https://geospy.ai/ is disturbingly accurate. They sell an API that even returns a street address. GPT-4o is also terrifyingly good if prompted to think investigatively. I've uploaded a photo of a friend's generic backyard with no text, signs, people, sky, or anything obvious, and it nailed their specific neighborhood. I've even sent it nothing more than a photo of my bathroom (with product labels blacked out) and it still identified sufficient clues to guess a locality within 200 miles of my actual location. A regular Sherlock Holmes with superhuman levels of world knowledge.
- spotplay 2y ago
  Did you remove the metadata before sending it? The bathroom story is far too impressive if you did, and could help identify kidnapping victims' locations
  - HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
    Yes. I even resized and reencoded after running the images through an EXIF stripper and verifying there was only pixel data left. Ubiquitous world knowledge is a powerful police tool.
- lnrd 2y ago
  Did you ask what clues it used to determine the location? Would be interesting to know
- saaaaaam 2y ago
  Just ran a few things through geospy. Including one of the inside of a plant room with some very generic aircon units. It got the right city based on the brick work.
- MIC132 2y ago
  Interestingly, my experience with it has been the opposite. While it's quite good at understanding what's in the picture it only has gotten my country right a few times and even then it just gives the capital, which I'm quite far away from.

So if you remove ALL the metadata from a photo, including the time it was taken, how likely is it that the location can be guessed? Asking for a friend. (Assume the sky isn't visible.)

hatthew 2y ago

Extremely dependent on the photo, but generally more doable that most people assume. Geowizard on youtube has a series where he guesses the location of arbitrary photos sent to him by subscribers, and he has quite a high success rate. Even without being a wizard at geography, an amateur can make a solid attempt just by being intelligent about using the clues available.

HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago

https://geospy.ai/ https://geospy.ai/ is disturbingly accurate. They sell an API that even returns a street address. GPT-4o is also terrifyingly good if prompted to think investigatively. I've uploaded a photo of a friend's generic backyard with no text, signs, people, sky, or anything obvious, and it nailed their specific neighborhood. I've even sent it nothing more than a photo of my bathroom (with product labels blacked out) and it still identified sufficient clues to guess a locality within 200 miles of my actual location. A regular Sherlock Holmes with superhuman levels of world knowledge.

spotplay 2y ago
Did you remove the metadata before sending it? The bathroom story is far too impressive if you did, and could help identify kidnapping victims' locations
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
  Yes. I even resized and reencoded after running the images through an EXIF stripper and verifying there was only pixel data left. Ubiquitous world knowledge is a powerful police tool.
lnrd 2y ago
Did you ask what clues it used to determine the location? Would be interesting to know
saaaaaam 2y ago
Just ran a few things through geospy. Including one of the inside of a plant room with some very generic aircon units. It got the right city based on the brick work.
MIC132 2y ago
Interestingly, my experience with it has been the opposite. While it's quite good at understanding what's in the picture it only has gotten my country right a few times and even then it just gives the capital, which I'm quite far away from.