Mining EXIF Data From Camera Phones 175
emeitner notes that folks at the Internet Storm Center wrote scripts that harvested 15,291 images from Twitpic and analyzed the EXIF information. This reader adds, "While mining EXIF data from images is nothing new, how many people would allow this data to leave their cell phone if they knew what it contained? The source code for the scripts is also available from the article." "399 images included the location of the camera at the time the image was taken, and 102 images included the name of the photographer. ... The iPhone is including the most EXIF information among the images we found. ... It not only includes the phone's location, but also accelerometer data showing if the phone was moved at the time the picture was taken and the readout from the [built-]in compass showing in which direction the phone was pointed at the time."
Scrubbing (Score:5, Informative)
No picture leaves this computer before it has been subjected to "jhead -purejpg". Something else to look out for: Image data beyond the edge of the image after lossless resizing and orphaned preview images embedded in the JPG, showing the full uncropped picture. The latter is dealt with by the "jhead -purejpg" command, the former isn't.
Re:dumb question (Score:3, Informative)
How hard is it to extract this data, Do you need a special tool or can i see it all in photoshop
It's not hard at all. On Vista and 7, right-click on the file, select properties, and go to "details." It might work on XP as well.
Depending on your folder view, all you might have to do is select the file.
Re:The iPhone metadata was already known I thought (Score:4, Informative)
The location data can be very wrong. If you don't have an adequate line of sight to the sky the phone will use cell towers to triangulate. If you can't see enough of them, it will use a wifi database to guess. If you've got a crappy (or no) cell connection but a clear view of the sky it might take a considerable amount of time for the GPS to lock on.
More fun with Math (Score:5, Informative)
399 images included the location of the camera at the time the image was taken, and 102 images included the name of the photographer. ...
Or, to summarize from the other point of view...
"97.4% of images did not include the location of the camera at the time the image was taken, and 99.3% of images did not include the name of the photographer. ... "
Re:dumb question (Score:2, Informative)
You should be able to look at the most interesting details in most up to date image software.
The buzzsaw is ExifTool:
http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/ [queensu.ca]
Re:The iPhone metadata was already known I thought (Score:4, Informative)
Facebook strips the EXIF data...
and then saves the photo with a filename that includes the Facebook user ID of the person who uploaded it.
Re:Photosynth Would Like This (Score:4, Informative)
Individual apps require you to give them the OK to get location data, but that only applies to shots taken from the app itself and not those that pull from the existing photo library. You can turn location services off entirely, but I can't find an immediately obvious way to revoke privileges from individual apps.
Re:Off-Topic: Good EXIF editing library? (Score:3, Informative)
Nothing new here (Score:1, Informative)
I've been looking at EXIF data in photos for years. It can work in to prove people are lying or at least maybe not being completely truthful with a specific forum post. Like someone claims they just took a photo of an accident scene or some a product and the EXIF data has references to a completely different person or a date a few years ago etc... I use a viewer app in Windows called XNView to modify or sanitize my pictures EXIF data in batches before I upload to places like photobucket or Google. Irvanview does it as well but I like XNView better.
If you want to view EXIF data, Windows can see it be default with properties as can the default Gnome viewer "EYE of Gnome".