Request Automatically Adding Exif Location Is A Privacy Security Risk

I love the ability to grab the EXIF location for images automatically. But it shouldn't be default, as often the EXIF location is incredibly accurate, to specific house numbers on streets.

This is a massive privacy issue and I've had some users upload photos from their phones, taken at home, the location automatically gets added and they save it, then the info is out there.

I don't want to disable the exif location field, but I'd like for it to be empty by default and if there to be an easy 'Set location from EXIF data' for a batch of photos at a time when uploading. Then you can delete or edit the locations you're concerned about.

I don't think there's a way to currently do this, is there?

I feel this is quite an important issue, so hopefully it can be addressed for the next release.

 

I believe it's the users' responsibility to turn off location grabbing in their phone.

 

Seriously? Depending on the site and demographic of the users, most probably don't even know what exif data is, or that all their photos are geotagged, let alone how to turn it off. I think if they're uploading content to a forum (or any website), part of the responsibility of safety and privacy of the users falls on the admin if they're in a position to help control what info gets shared.

Exif data and geolocation on photos is actually incredibly useful when used correctly, being able to use the native photos app to browse your personal photos by location, or to search via location. There's tons of reasons why it's very useful and you wouldn't want to switch it off at the source.

Some sites may love the existing gallery implementation where the photos are automatically geotagged. I actually think it's really cool, but also potentially very dangerous.

Lots of my users get together for meetups in real life, and it's great to have event photos geo tagged. But if I'm taking photos of stuff in my house and uploading them then it becomes a huge privacy issue. Some users aren't astute enough to catch this before saving and I've already had a two cases of when users take photos of expensive equipment on their phones at home, only to post it to the gallery and realise they've effectively given away their exact home address.

I don't want to disable the feature completely. I'd just like it so that it doesn't populate the location by default, but you can press a button and it will automatically geo-tag all photos you're about to save to a gallery, so you can then review the locations before saving, after you've just made a conscious decision to reveal the location.

 

Yes.

Warn them how dangerous can be when paedophiles read the information from their children's photos.

Don't make me responsible for the consequences.

 

Good idea! I'll include a paragraph in the new user welcome message about that.

It can still be implemented, but just in a more responsible fashion, that's all.

 

I just had someone else create an album and upload a load of pics that gave away their home address.

I really don't want to have to disable this feature as it is often very useful, but it needs altering so setting the location for all photos just uploaded requires a click so the user is aware of it and can review the info.

 

Yep, uploading screen would be perfect.