Dummies guide to stalking, is a geotagging worth your life?
Geotagging is when a photo or post is automatically tagged with a geographical location of where a photo or post was taken. For military personnel in a combat zone this can be extremely dangerous.
In 2007, a fleet of US Army helicopters flew into a base in Iraq. Soldiers took pictures on the flight and then uploaded them to the internet.Based on the automatic geotagging applied to photos by almost every smartphone on the market and using FaceaBook’s map tab within its timeline, the enemy determined the exact location of the helicopters inside the compound and launched a mortar attack that destroyed four AH-64 Apaches.
Not singleing out soldiers, the US Army warned against anyone using geotagging,saying it really does expose anyone who uses it.
Staff Sgt. Dale Sweetnam, of the Online and Social Media Division describes it as:
“Some [Facebook users] have hundreds of “friends” they may never have actually met in person. By looking at someone’s map tab on Facebook, you can see everywhere they’ve tagged a location. You can see the restaurants they frequent, the gym they go to everyday, even the street they live on if they’re tagging photos of their home. Honestly, it’s pretty scary how much an acquaintance that becomes a Facebook “friend” can find out about your routines and habits if you’re always tagging location to your posts.
Bear in mind that most geotagging-enabled applications allow users to limit who can see their check-ins to friends or friends of friends. That’s a security feature that’s wise to take advantage of.
Here are the Army’s rules of thumb for both enlisted personnel and for civilians when it comes to staying geo-safe:
MCoE OPSEC officer Kent Grosshans noted that if somebody knows that your spouse is deployed, for example, they’ll also know that 1) your spouse isn’t home and 2) where your house is.
As Officer Grosshans noted, the same applies to safety for children. Do you really want the entire world to know where your child goes to school?
His advice:
Be conscious of what information you’re putting out there. Don’t share information with strangers. Once it’s out there, it’s out there. There’s no pulling it back.
Read original article at Naked Security
