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Social media, apps and 'big fish' security

Anthony Pearson

Senior Member
Interesting article on the BBC today reporting on the work done by a Guardian reporter Carole Cadwalladr :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43458110

This had me thinking about the apps we use to photograph/store our images. Now I'm not in a position to worry (I don't catch record-breaking fish) but with the use of GPS on phones and on such devices as the Deeper Smart Fish Finder, information that we would prefer to keep to ourselves may very well be being analysed and shared. If you save a photograph on such an app, it will record the GPS position of where it was taken (there are probably opt-outs to this, but people can be quite laissez-faire where these things are concerned).

Now, some of those who do catch the larger specimens don't rush to publicise their catches, but anyone who has a bait in the water can catch a record (if the fish is in the vicinity) and there's the danger that when they are 'in the moment' they wouldn't think twice about the possibility of their image data being acquired by others. Suddenly, those syndicate waters that have a no-publicity policy, could find that the whereabouts of their prized fish has been compromised!

Remember, data is being collected and somewhere, at some time, somebody may be looking very closely at it.

You heard it here first! :)
 
Good point Anthony
Quite by chance I got sent jpegs of 2 different 15pound plus Yorkshire fish from last season , both days after capture and both late summer fish!!- breathtaking specimens and I don't think the lad who caught them realised just what he'd achieved. One right click and I knew which river and which area. One phonecall later I knew the stretch, and pointers to the pegs
Now you've got to believe me that I didn't go chasing these fish, just not my thing being part of the circus ( had enough of that as a piker) but 20 years ago I'd have been there like a shot.
I did email the captor and congratulate him and warn him of the ramifications of sharing the picture with anyone in it's current format.
I very nearly sent the pics to a couple of trusted pals just to share these awesome fish with them but at the last minute didn't....just in case they did the same, and so on...
And that's the danger - it's pandoras box - just one slight misjudgement on anyone's part and a glory hole could end being hammered (literally) to death.
 
I suggest people turn off "location tags" ( or whatever similar in their flavour of mobile) in their mobile's camera app.

Mine (Android) is in camera / settings

20180320_200830.png

VPNs are the way to go.

Unfortunately most people don't know what VPN means, even after googling :oops:
 
Is the GPS location accessable if the image is a hosted image? Surely it’s only obtained if you have a copy of the original.
Equally it’s a right old faff to extract the information, locate the position from GPS in the vain hope the fish is anywhere near the place it was caught.
 
Is the GPS location accessible if the image is a hosted image?

I've no idea, Stephen, but I remember therer being an associated problem with images being hosted, in this particular case, by Photobucket. If users didn't have their personal settings sorted, it was possible to click on an image and peruse numerous other images! So the location of a posted prized capture against an unrecognisable background could be blown because the captor had taken several other shots during the session which included obvious features. I once had the pleasure of seeing someone's wedding photos before tipping him off!

As for GPS and locations...they are accurate to about 10-15 metres. Narrowing down a big fish to a particular stretch could pay dividends for certain fish-chasers as some species are particularly territorial....as we know.
 
Recently i found that the Thames and Wandle are both on streetview. Both of these rivers are heavily covered via the Thames path or Wandle way. A Chinese man, Uy Hoang cycled along both and took 360* photos every 50m some are closer. If you look at his reflection you can see the camera high above his head. If you want to look at areas/ swims you just click on the blue dot and then zoom in on the river. Other rivers around London are partially covered but i can see a day when all rivers will be on the system.
 
Well Photobucket have just about killed their own buisness with all this third party hosting crap, I recon.

I spose in reality you can only take appropriate measures. I always disable location services on my phones. My van has a bloody tracker in it though... if someone is really determined to stalk you and your captures they will find a way. I’d suggest these people have other mental issues beyond a fishing habit though...
 
A digital image (photo) contains Metadata and is stored in a format called “Exchangeable Image File Format” or EXIF

EXIF metadata can be read by a variety of methods and tools, and can include date, time, camera settings etc etc but also might include Latitude and longitude coordinates for the location where the photo was taken.

I have disabled the location tag on my mobile but do not have similar on my (fishing) camera, and if someone else takes a photo of a fish for me using their mobile or camera I'd have no idea what their settings were.

A simple method of removing this data if you want to publish a photo on the internet, and this is what I usually do, is to take a copy of the original then crop the copy (you only have to crop a tiny amount so the image would hardly look to have changed size) and save it. Hey presto all metadata is removed.
 
I wonder if Danny Fairbrass employed a data analyst when Korda become the exclusive distributors of the Deeper Sonar in the UK?':eek:
 
Paul, re your post about removing exif data... my wife does a lot of photography and publishes it on Flickr, she does a lot of photo processing , cropping etc, and when she is satisfied she then posts the photos , they are image protected , as she also sells them .... thing is, even after all the work done, the exif data is still there .
Is it something that she isnt doing ?
In her case it doesnt matter as she isnt interested in protecting the locations, but it does pose a question why is the data still there after much "messing about " with the photos .
I know nothing about computers and the internet, so its all foreign to me, but she finds it very interesting that all the data, camera settings, GPS locations , time /date etc are all contained in the image.
Just asked her, apparently most apps, including the photo processing included on Apple Ipad and Apple Comp as standard dont wipe the data, but some apps do.

Dave
 
Ooops
Not sure Dave, the may be more to it than I understand.

Before I posted I copied an original to a folder, then I copied it again.

I viewed both using Gimp and saw the EXIF data .

I then cropped the second copy and saved it.

I then viewed the EXIF data for the cropped image and it was "empty"

Maybe I need to do some more testing? Perhaps your wife uses editing software that has a "retain EXIF" setting (if there is such a thing? .......... Yes, there IS such a thing :)
 
Unfortunately most people don't know what VPN means, even after googling :oops:

A VPN puts your location through a 3rd party host which in turn puts you in various locations worldwide. I'm currently in the Asda in Moscow on the Novichock isle ;)
 
Dave - its more of a minefield than i thought, here's some info that refers

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-to-remove-exif-metadata-from-photos-and-why-you-might-want-to/

TBH Paul, it isnt anything of an issue for me, we were talking about this only ten mins ago, she had just used four different types of editing apps to process some photos taken today, and each one had retained the exif data, funnily enough, she had also been" creating" a picture from two seperate pictures, and the exif data disappeared, so maybe that is the way forward...
Catch your fish, take your selfie, then superimpose somebody elses face upon it ( or fish )

Lucky for me I dont catch anything worthy of a photo these days... ☹️ Or understand how to make a five pounder look like a fifteen pounder..... The missus does though !

Dave
 
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