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Isn't revealing your location the whole point of taking a picture from your hotel window and sharing it with the world on Twitter? I wouldn't be too surprised i

Isn't revealing your location the whole point of taking a picture from your hotel window and sharing it with the world on Twitter? I wouldn't be too surprised if I posted "I'm in Miami, and here's a view from my Hotel window" and someone was able to tell me the Hotel name and which side I was staying on. Infact, I'd be more surprised if someone couldn't! The techniques used are not particularly ingenious here, especially as most of the photo's seem to depict some obvious landmarks to provide an easy point of reference, especially when given the extra information to focus on a specific location.

enscr 12y ago
Granted that posting a pic from your hotel room, with emphasis on outside view doesn't leave a lot to be guessed but the author has done some reasonable sleuthing to be accurate, let's give him credit for that.
hoggle 12y ago
TL;DR Be mindful of reflections when taking a picture. "Conclusion Clear and simple: the reflected images in pictures might disclose information that you wouldn’t be willing to share, such as your location or other personal details."
- _mulder_ 12y ago
  Whilst this could be the case in some photographs, like reading reflected documents or personal information, the ability to see a reflected light and a photo frame which therefore narrows your location down to one of 30-40 identical hotel rooms doesn't seem like personal information to be wary off. You're far more likely to inadvertently reveal personal information in the background of a photo of your actual hotel room that you are from looking out the window.
- lamontcg 12y ago
  reflected images in pictures might also disclose that you just got out of the shower and didn't bother to put on any clothes yet....
muyuu 12y ago
Yep, pretty much. The article's neat, but isn't the point of the kind of pictures shown in this article to show where you are? I don't think you can call this "inadvertently". This is a bit like checking in with Foursquare. If there's a security concern with showing it real-time and net-wide, then you just shouldn't. Reminded me of this: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bm1gMRUCIAA8Y4E.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bm1gMRUCIAA8Y4E.jpg
- danielbarla 12y ago
  I think they point is that people would be surprised that you can relatively easily narrow down a vague picture to almost a floor / room number level. I'm guessing some people may not be comfortable with that.
  - powera 12y ago
    You're not going to figure out the room number based on what lamp is in the room.
    - nitrogen 12y ago
      Not from the lamp, from the geometry.
  - clarky07 12y ago
    he narrowed it down to like a 4 floor level. who cares? and pretty much none of that information came from the reflections, just the picture itself.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- sbarre 12y ago
  Actually an interesting solution to the Foursquare check-in privacy issue that I've seen is people check in when they are leaving instead of arriving.
DanBC 12y ago
Think beyond the work-safe examples and imagine forensic uses. Children being traffiked and abused in hotel rooms would be one example.
- bateller 12y ago
  Situations where criminal activity took place would usually include police (with child trafficking, more likely even the FBI). To think these ideas or photo analysis techniques are new to LE is naive.
- notahacker 12y ago
  I suspect child abusers generally move out of their landmark hotel room before sharing compromising pictures on the internet (and generally hang around in much less high-profile locations, for obvious reasons). Admittedly it would be a lot more forensically useful if the image had accurate metadata showing date taken. I was hoping for something clever involving algorithms picking up subtle reflections that weren't visible to the naked eye and or algorithms automagically matching photos with other photos taken from similar angles, but this is Google-fu 101. If you tell people which city you're in and post a photo of the centre, people will probably be able to figure out where it was taken from. That applied long before the age of the internet and digital photography.
mrcactu5 12y ago
if they post on Twitter, probably they want you to know they are in some fancy hotel. And if you know the skyline very well, you can deduce which one. What is really good here is that he went through all the steps in the deduction. Most people will not take the time or patience to pick the landmarks and do the perspective. As for the article, I didn't know Google Earth was so extensive and I learned some interesting geologic features of Miami!
outworlder 12y ago
Assuming that someone is familiar with the location, of course. Also, many times people want to post the view, how many times are they tweeting their hotel and room addresses? One could use these (and other) techniques to pinpoint your location from anywhere in the globe, without even setting foot in that location, perhaps not even the country. Keep in mind that the poster "eyeballed" the floor height. With more work, it is possible that he could have figured out not only the floor, but which window the picture was taken from. Also, nice call on reflections of safes and notebooks.
- Atroxide 12y ago
  But none of the information gained from the reflections were not obtainable in another way. In the first example with this image http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G-MF-A05uSs/U2CA_n8IKfI/AAAAAAAAAZI/5HR5A3e6YRg/s1600/mia7.png http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G-MF-A05uSs/U2CA_n8IKfI/AAAAAAAAAZ... He claims it could be three possible hotels from that area. Yet it can actually only be one because there is only one hotel on that side of the road (you can see the road below). I went from that picture I just posted to the actual location without reading the rest of the blog. I have never stepped foot or even seen a photo of Miami. Those buildings are extremely unique. Once I found those buildings, I moved the view around in Google Maps to get me the EXACT point of reference which could have been two different hotels. but Like I said, only one on the correct side of the street. On the second example, I was able to locate the picture simply by Google Maps. There aren't many buildings with domes on the top of it that is basically right next to water. It took me 3 minutes. Once I found it, I lined up the shot and found the building. There was only one it could have been. With a quick google search. To find which floor the picture was taken on, all I had to do was find which floor was completely straight in the photo (which means he was leveled with that floor) and then translate that height to the other building (by guessing). I guessed floor 17 which was one off and was the exact same guess as the blogger. Basically, the blog post makes it seem he uses reflections to find where buildings were. In reality the reflections were not useful to locate the building, only to find interior shots after the location is discovered.
yp_maplist 12y ago
blog.ioactive.com has moved from 74.125.141.121 to 74.125.25.121
rjf1990 12y ago
I thought it was cool detective work and proved a good point, despite not being "particularly ingenious".
pkulak 12y ago
I stopped reading when I saw the Vancouver photo. I mean, you probably know exactly where that is even if all you've done is fly over Vancouver, let alone been downtown a couple times.

enscr 12y ago

Granted that posting a pic from your hotel room, with emphasis on outside view doesn't leave a lot to be guessed but the author has done some reasonable sleuthing to be accurate, let's give him credit for that.

hoggle 12y ago

TL;DR Be mindful of reflections when taking a picture. "Conclusion Clear and simple: the reflected images in pictures might disclose information that you wouldn’t be willing to share, such as your location or other personal details."

_mulder_ 12y ago
Whilst this could be the case in some photographs, like reading reflected documents or personal information, the ability to see a reflected light and a photo frame which therefore narrows your location down to one of 30-40 identical hotel rooms doesn't seem like personal information to be wary off. You're far more likely to inadvertently reveal personal information in the background of a photo of your actual hotel room that you are from looking out the window.
lamontcg 12y ago
reflected images in pictures might also disclose that you just got out of the shower and didn't bother to put on any clothes yet....

muyuu 12y ago

Yep, pretty much. The article's neat, but isn't the point of the kind of pictures shown in this article to show where you are? I don't think you can call this "inadvertently". This is a bit like checking in with Foursquare. If there's a security concern with showing it real-time and net-wide, then you just shouldn't. Reminded me of this: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bm1gMRUCIAA8Y4E.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bm1gMRUCIAA8Y4E.jpg

danielbarla 12y ago
I think they point is that people would be surprised that you can relatively easily narrow down a vague picture to almost a floor / room number level. I'm guessing some people may not be comfortable with that.
- powera 12y ago
  You're not going to figure out the room number based on what lamp is in the room.
  - nitrogen 12y ago
    Not from the lamp, from the geometry.
- clarky07 12y ago
  he narrowed it down to like a 4 floor level. who cares? and pretty much none of that information came from the reflections, just the picture itself.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
sbarre 12y ago
Actually an interesting solution to the Foursquare check-in privacy issue that I've seen is people check in when they are leaving instead of arriving.

DanBC 12y ago

Think beyond the work-safe examples and imagine forensic uses. Children being traffiked and abused in hotel rooms would be one example.

bateller 12y ago
Situations where criminal activity took place would usually include police (with child trafficking, more likely even the FBI). To think these ideas or photo analysis techniques are new to LE is naive.
notahacker 12y ago
I suspect child abusers generally move out of their landmark hotel room before sharing compromising pictures on the internet (and generally hang around in much less high-profile locations, for obvious reasons). Admittedly it would be a lot more forensically useful if the image had accurate metadata showing date taken. I was hoping for something clever involving algorithms picking up subtle reflections that weren't visible to the naked eye and or algorithms automagically matching photos with other photos taken from similar angles, but this is Google-fu 101. If you tell people which city you're in and post a photo of the centre, people will probably be able to figure out where it was taken from. That applied long before the age of the internet and digital photography.

mrcactu5 12y ago

if they post on Twitter, probably they want you to know they are in some fancy hotel. And if you know the skyline very well, you can deduce which one. What is really good here is that he went through all the steps in the deduction. Most people will not take the time or patience to pick the landmarks and do the perspective. As for the article, I didn't know Google Earth was so extensive and I learned some interesting geologic features of Miami!

outworlder 12y ago

Assuming that someone is familiar with the location, of course. Also, many times people want to post the view, how many times are they tweeting their hotel and room addresses? One could use these (and other) techniques to pinpoint your location from anywhere in the globe, without even setting foot in that location, perhaps not even the country. Keep in mind that the poster "eyeballed" the floor height. With more work, it is possible that he could have figured out not only the floor, but which window the picture was taken from. Also, nice call on reflections of safes and notebooks.

Atroxide 12y ago
But none of the information gained from the reflections were not obtainable in another way. In the first example with this image http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G-MF-A05uSs/U2CA_n8IKfI/AAAAAAAAAZI/5HR5A3e6YRg/s1600/mia7.png http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G-MF-A05uSs/U2CA_n8IKfI/AAAAAAAAAZ... He claims it could be three possible hotels from that area. Yet it can actually only be one because there is only one hotel on that side of the road (you can see the road below). I went from that picture I just posted to the actual location without reading the rest of the blog. I have never stepped foot or even seen a photo of Miami. Those buildings are extremely unique. Once I found those buildings, I moved the view around in Google Maps to get me the EXACT point of reference which could have been two different hotels. but Like I said, only one on the correct side of the street. On the second example, I was able to locate the picture simply by Google Maps. There aren't many buildings with domes on the top of it that is basically right next to water. It took me 3 minutes. Once I found it, I lined up the shot and found the building. There was only one it could have been. With a quick google search. To find which floor the picture was taken on, all I had to do was find which floor was completely straight in the photo (which means he was leveled with that floor) and then translate that height to the other building (by guessing). I guessed floor 17 which was one off and was the exact same guess as the blogger. Basically, the blog post makes it seem he uses reflections to find where buildings were. In reality the reflections were not useful to locate the building, only to find interior shots after the location is discovered.

yp_maplist 12y ago

blog.ioactive.com has moved from 74.125.141.121 to 74.125.25.121

rjf1990 12y ago

I thought it was cool detective work and proved a good point, despite not being "particularly ingenious".

pkulak 12y ago

I stopped reading when I saw the Vancouver photo. I mean, you probably know exactly where that is even if all you've done is fly over Vancouver, let alone been downtown a couple times.