Is EXIF Your Friend or Foe?

Your photos contain more useful information than you think

Learn how useful EXIF information can be useful and dangerous.

Episode #12-45 released on July 22, 2022

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EXIF, standing for Exchangeable Image file, used to store information about geolocation, time, date, equipment, etc. Can be pretty useful, to you, and others, and for good or bad reasons.

The most useful information in an Exif file for anyone editing are related to camera information, which includes resolution, f-stop, exposure, iso, white balance, focal distance, etc. This information can help editors better understand the image and edit it appropriately.

The date and time, are, also, useful pieces of information, that on their own can help identify location of image if anything with a known height casts a shadow on the ground because of the sun. While, not as precise as GPS, it can give an idea of where on the planet the image was taken. For precision, GPS location is, also, available in the image, which the device has GPS location enabled for the image.

Then there is information such as software include in the Exif file that tells us if the image comes from a Camera, smart phone, or is edited by programs such as Adobe Photoshop.

Now, how is that information good or bad?

The information is useful to organize photos and videos in many popular programs, and even on your phone or tablet. It allows you to see where you went, when, and with some software with facial recognition, you can select the people you want to see.

That being said that same information can be used to figure out who you are, where you are generally located, your possessions, etc. Basically, you can be targeted for your property or as a person. And it is for this reason that the best course of action when posting anything online is to suppress any information related to geo location, modify time and date, etc. Definitely avoid posting images where common objects can, also, be used to determine your location, as well.

Host : Steve Smith | Music : | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Dot Net

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