You meet someone new on a dating app., then take the conversation to text messages. Things are going well, and you send a picture of the sunrise one morning. Harmless, right? Boom! You may have just given away your exact location.
Our tech stores all kinds of tidbits about where we are, what we’re doing, when we’re doing it, you name it. Suspect someone is cheating? Tech leaves those breadcrumbs, too.
Our apps and services are tracking where we are, too. You can put a stop to that.
While you’re at it, let’s make sure you’re not giving away more than you bargained for via your pics.
It’s all in the metadata
Every time you snap a picture, your phone stores metadata. That includes details like the device you took it on, your camera settings, the data and where you took it. This is also known as EXIF data.
Sending someone a picture you took at a public place? Not a huge deal. What about when you have sent picture after picture from the same location? Anyone who knows how to access this info now knows where you live.
Here’s how to stop oversharing
To stop location sharing on iPhone:
- Open the image you want to share and tap the share button (it looks like a square with an arrow pointing up).
- Next, select Options, and toggle off Location.
It’s a pain to do this for every picture, so you can also disable this location tracking in your camera altogether.
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap on Privacy > Location Services.
- Scroll down and tap on Camera, then select Never.
On Android, here’s how to wipe a single photo:
- Open your gallery, select the photo,
- Go to Details (it may be a three-dot menu) and click Remove location data.
To disable your location from photos for good, do this:
- Open the Camera app’s settings.
- Turn the location setting off.
What about social media?
By default, the major social media sites strip out photo metadata when you upload. Hey look, there’s one thing they’re doing for our privacy.
Don’t worry about someone downloading your pictures from Instagram or Twitter. They won’t find any hidden details.