'The link to Who is watching you?' vanished!
In brief, photos taken with a mobile (cell) phone can be used in much the same way as GPS to track the person or persons portrayed. This is particularly worrying where children are concerned as they may be traced to their homes, schools, favourite haunts without their or their parents' knowledge and you may be sure that anyone stalking children in this way is up to no good.
There are settings on mobile phones that will deactivate the tracking capability but, as with most technology, mischievous people can and will hack into them.
It is frightening to realise how truly vulnerable we are. We guard our keys, wallets and other personal possessions so carefully but unwittingly expose those we love to danger simply by recording them and making those photographs public.
Photos taken with ordinary cameras are not traceable.
This is definitely something to keep in mind.
ReplyDeleteFortunately I have an ordinary camera and my mobile phone dates from prehistoric times and doesn't have a camera in it. Funny thing is that so many people find that almost unbelievable. 'What?! No camera in your phone???'
I found this out purely by chance when transferring a mobile image on to my laptop and seeing how much information goes with it. It is really quite scary.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I heard of this the other day.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, my phone pics are not post-able.
Still, what a strange world we are living in...
Pearl
They are indeed one more way in which we can be so vulnerable! I realize of course that phones are necessary, but I've stuck with with just a plain mobile phone and I intend to keep it. Makes my life simpler anyway, but then at my age, you need it to be pretty simple!! Hope your week is going well!
ReplyDeleteI know from movies that criminals can be traced because of their mobiles, but never thought about pictures and children etc. My mobile is very simple, I only can call, send texts and could also take pictures, but have never done. For that I have my camera. Apparently Big Brother is watching us everywhere !
ReplyDeleteScary stuff indeed.
ReplyDeleteThat's scary!
ReplyDeleteMy phone has a camera, but it is an older model phone without the GPS function. I still don't use the camera part much and never transfer the photos to the laptop.
ReplyDeleteOh! I didn't know this. I normally prefer my camera to the phone camera but then a lot of my friends use the mobile phone cam regularly. Thanks for sharing this. Will let them know.
ReplyDeleteI did a blog post about this too which is scheduled to go up at a later date. It was in the news here in Hawaii. It's really scary. What else don't we know about all our "smart" products.
ReplyDelete