Grow Room Security

Hey guys, I would have posted this in the "security" section but seems I don't have those privileges. I'll post it here and if someone with privileges moves it that's fine. What follows should be of interest for anyone posting photo's of their grow locations. My daughter clued me in to this but it became apparent quickly the possible ramifications.

Here's the deal. For those that don't know, and I didn't, all modern digital camera's store information regarding the camera settings like exposure. Computer programs can access this information. It will even tell you if the photo has been edited with an external program. Fortunately this information can be stripped from the image files. Your now probably wondering what this has to do with growing? Sit down.

Camera phones that are GPS enabled upload one other bit of information, and that's the GPS coordinates of exactly where that photo was taken. She took one of her photo's and feed it into a program and it pulled the information from the image. This was an image upload to a website and then downloaded back to the PC.

From that data she clicked on the linked coordinates and it pulled it straight into Google maps. I was looking at the exact same image she took but only from the street view. I thought it would be fun to grab a photo from a grow here, one where someone mentions the crappy cellphone picture, pull the data and upload a picture of their house. Spooky shit.

This blew me away but really doesn't surprise me. Privacy is really an illusion, what the average Joe see's and knows is enough to give them a warm fuzzy about their security but it really is meaningless.

It might be a good idea for the site admin to examine the ability to remove this information from uploaded photo's. She said this information is stored in a file called the "EXIF" info. Maybe a photo buff here knows what this data is, I'm not even sure the EXIF is exactly the term.

I'm a little medicated on some C99 from Mos Negra so I might just be a little paranoid.. lol but I thought it was worth sharing.

Peace!

Ive heard of this before especially with the iPhone. Newer Blackberrys have it to, ive got one. If you go into the camera options on your cellphone, look for "Geotagging" make SURE it is disabled. Otherwise you will end up with GPS coordinates in the EXIF data on every picture you take and upload to the internet.

Good post...I bet a lot of people don't know about this.

can we have a little proof of this? what is the website that you can upload the picture too and it tells you where it was taken?

mrboots, lets make this interesting cause I'm still buzzed. It's on my daughters PC and I will pass the link. But in the meantime, upload a photo here taken from your GPS enabled camera, and I'll pull it in and see what I get, cool?

OK, here are the links, I have found out that this works with all iPhones. I do not know if it yet works with other phones.

http://regex.info/exif.cgi

I created a bookmark and placed it on my tool bar. When I went to a site and found a photo, I just click on the link bookmark and it pulls in the last picture, the one on screen and if there are GPS coordinates it opens the map and shows the location. She than zooms in and goes to street view and get a picture of the location or house.

Don't want to sound like a perv, but I Googled iPhone pictures and eneded up at a site called "girls with iPhones" (bookmarked now thanks!). Went to the first picture and clicked the bookmark I made for EXIF and there it was, Google maps showing me the location.

let me see if i can find a good pic thats not in my house

One of the easiest things you can do is to open the photo with Irfanview, resize or resample the image, and save it. This removes all additional information.

If you'd like to see what info is available in your photos. Right click the icon, select properties, and look for the Advanced information.

It should also be noted that some cameras include model numbers and serial numbers. Depending on the make, brand, and just "who" is looking at the information. This could be considered physical or circumstantial evidence.

ok here we go, it was hard to find something that wasn't me or some one i know in the pic. this one is appropriate if this works, its some art student thing i saw, something about surveilence (the guy on the left is supposed to be a security camera) if you can tell me where it is i'll freak out. its taken from a newer samsung gps enabled smartphone.

There isn't any gps information. But I can tell you that youve got a samsung a767. As far as I know it's mainly the iPhone that records GPS information but that's changing.

Exactly, same thing I found.

Here, try thi picture taken from a website. Link doesn't matter, but camera was an iPhone.

me8980109 said:

Here, try thi picture taken from a website. Link doesn't matter, but camera was an iPhone.View attachment 972112

Click to expand...

Done. She is in some european country. The exif data coordinates are an old trick that has been around for at least a year. I've seen it used for grow houses and to blackmail girls with nude pics.

just checked. photos uploaded to myspace, then saved via "save image as", dont have any info in exif.

can someone post a link to a good photo info wiper? freeware or $$$ware dont care ; )

http://www.shivaranjan.com/2008/08/31/how-to-remove-exif-iptc-and-xmp-metadata-data-from-image-files/

Here's a free EXIF info wiper. Seems pretty straight forward and easy to use.

Edit: Scroll down to the "Download Exif Tag Remover."

me8980109 said:

Here, try thi picture taken from a website. Link doesn't matter, but camera was an iPhone.View attachment 972112

Click to expand...

In windows 7 you can remove the info from the properties tab. This may or may not be available in XP or Vista, I don't really recall it being one though. As mentioned before though Irfanview can remove the information. It's probably the best image viewing, basic editing program available as well. You should already have it.

whiteflour said:

It should also be noted that some cameras include model numbers and serial numbers. Depending on the make, brand, and just "who" is looking at the information. This could be considered physical or circumstantial evidence.

Click to expand...

YES SIR. you said it all WhiteFlouR! hahaha i love your picture -- it makes your name completely -- haha thats seriously some funny shit i just looked at that. ALL HAIL HITLA!

ANYWAYS!

you said it perfectly -- and that is why i believe i will not be posting any pictures -- haha also because i dont really have a good camera other than my phone and computer.

well i guess even if i didnt post pictures, someone could easily realize who the hell i am -- haha damnit i used abefroman35 and i should have just used AbeFroman. BAHHH!

wiggabee said:

Done. She is in some european country. The exif data coordinates are an old trick that has been around for at least a year. I've seen it used for grow houses and to blackmail girls with nude pics.

Click to expand...

HOLY SHITTT!!!!

dude that just blows my mind.

even though i know that somebody is reading every thing i type right now -- other than all of you on RIU.