This is how you have to protect yourself

Cybersecurity is a topic that is becoming increasingly relevant. Attacks against individuals and companies are becoming more and more frequent and we must be very careful with the data we share on social networks, which allow us to direct very personalized attacks. This also applies to companies, because in recent days we have seen attacks of all kinds.

The biggest example is physical theft. It is never advisable to share photos when we are on vacation. because thieves are told that there is no one at home. Yes, it is true that there are ways to pretend that we have not left, but it is still better not to confirm that we are absent.

Harassment is also a problemboth physical and virtual, and giving away our location is not the best thing we can do. But it’s not about not actively sharing location with WhatsApp or Google Maps, or not saying where we are in a group chat. There are ways to know where someone is just from a photo they uploaded from there.

What is EXIF?

Digital photographs differ from analog photographs in many ways. For starters, they are not physical, and even the colors and textures are different. But another important difference is that Digital photos can store information which is not directly related to the image itself, but to its circumstances.

That’s what we call EXIF, acronym for Exchangeable Image File Formata consensual way of getting information from a photograph. This is where data such as the camera that took the photo, the time it was taken, and settings such as aperture or ISO are stored.

But also it is possible to store GPS coordinates, so it is literally possible to know when exactly the image was taken. This is very useful for reproducing certain images, making a tutorial or a manual, but it also allows you to know where a person is if they have shared an image with this data in real time via a social application. However, there are programs like WhatsApp, which remove the EXIF ​​from the shared image, unless it is shared as a file, since it is kept there.

How to find the place

Every operating system has tools for looking at the EXIF ​​data of images, and ordering them in one way or another. Plus, some even like Android show on a small map where a photo was takenif we use apps like Google Photos.

Android. To see where a photo was taken, simply open it in Google Photos and swipe up to see its details. The information appears there, including a plane that marks the exact spot where the shot was taken. Plus, you can even click to open it in Google Maps and plot a route there.

IOS. On Apple devices it’s similar. You need to open the photo in the Photos app. We are looking for an icon of the letter i, which corresponds to the information and we are looking for the location. The map will appear there. If we press, Apple Maps will open.

MacOS. In the case of an Apple computer, you must open the image with the Preview application. Then you need to open the Tools menu and click on Show Inspector, then click on the i icon with the circle and select the GPS option.

The Windows. In the Microsoft system, it works the same way. You just have to open the image with the viewer, which is the default application, and right-click on any area. The File Information option is selected and a section called Location appears, which displays a map.

How to remove geolocation

The geolocation function is available on mobile phones, since they have GPS, and on some cameras. It is something that can be disabled, although you will lose some functions, such as seeing in Google Photos where all the photos were taken in a heat map.

To prevent an image we take from including data about where it was taken, we must change this option in the camera application we use to take the photos. In the camera app settings, there is an option called Location Tags or Geotagging which adds coordinate data to photos and videos we take so we can then position them on a map. If this function is deactivated, this information can no longer be extracted.

Another option is Share the image on networks but without giving the EXIF ​​data. On iOS, this is done by opening the image in the Photos app. We click on the i to get information and look for a location. There you can delete it before sharing it. On Android, you will need to download a third-party app, such as Photo exif editor. By editing the image it contains, it is possible to remove certain elements before sending it to anyone.