Special Report: Geotagging reveals more than you think

Photos of a couple's new baby, a beautiful wedding, or Grandma's 90th birthday. Many of us share these kinds of special shots online for family and friends to see. But did you know, along with the pictures, you could be posting a map to your doorstep?

"Are you Mrs. Hamblin?" asked Amanda Grace of 7News.

"I am," said Elizabeth Hamblin.

"We saw this picture on the internet from your iPhone. We were able to track it down to your address," said Grace.

"Oh my gosh. That’s really quite amazing that you actually found this," said Hamblin.

It was shockingly simple for us to find the exact location of Elizabeth’s home just by looking at the pictures she posted on a photo sharing website.

"That’s really scary," said Hamblin.

How did we do it? We just clicked open the picture's geotag which is a piece of data stored within the photo. It gives the GPS coordinates, latitude and longitude, of exactly where the shot was snapped. So it essentially "tags" the photograph with a geographic location.

"Have you heard of that?" said Grace.

"I haven't," said Hamblin.

But Adam Peller had. He knew all about geotagging, but we were still easily able to track him down.

"That’s not good," said Peller.

We found his house from party snapshots he put online two years ago.

"I do tend to be pretty careful with pictures. This was before I knew to be careful and it wasn't even taken with my camera," said Peller.

Almost any smart phone or digital camera with built in GPS is equipped with the geotagging feature. Check that your device's setting is "off" to avoid making your private location very public.

"Pretty much any site that you're able to upload photos at this point, unless it says so in their terms of agreement, you have the ability to possibly pull out that data," said Graham Remocaldo, Tech Superpowers.

You don't need much tech know-how to find the geotag. All you need is free software you can find online.

"Let’s try this out for ourselves. We’re on Boston’s Beacon Hill. I’m going to take a picture of Louisburg Square," said Grace.

*snap*

“I uploaded that picture to the internet, I downloaded the geotrack software and that brought up the GPS location. Then with one click, there it is, the map and the exact place I took that picture," said Grace.

"What are the risks?" said Grace.

"Obviously the risks would be if you take photos at your home, people can find out where you live. They can find your daily routines and kind of know where you're going, where you like to hang out," said Remocaldo.

Some websites, like Match.com and Facebook don't allow geotags in posted pictures. Other sites like Flickr, Picasa, and Twitpic let you decide if you want to share your location. But not all sites take steps to protect the private info that can be hidden inside your picture.

So before you snap it and send it, make sure the image on the screen is the only thing you're sharing.

"We’ll just take better steps from now on," said Hamblin.

"If I share it, I make sure geotagging is off," said Peller.

Check out the link on this page to find out how to turn off geotagging on some common phones. If you can’t find your phone on the list or you want to turn off geotagging on your GPS enabled camera, check your user manual or call the company directly.

To turn off geotagging:

For the iPhone 4:

1. Select "settings"

2. Select "general"

3. Select "location services"

4. Turn off all location tracking by selecting "off" for "location services" or turn off location tracking for specific apps by selecting "off" for each individual app

**If you turn off the main location services, this will disable all location based services including your map.**

For the iPhone 3:

There are two ways to do this.

1. Select "settings"

2. Select "general"

3. Turn off all location tracking by selecting "off" for "location services"

**If you turn off your location services, this will disable all location based services including your map.**

The second way allows you to reset the prompts for all of your located based services, meaning that when you open an app, it will ask you again if you want to allow it to use your location.  There's no way to turn of locations for individual apps on the iPhone 3.

1. Select "settings"

2. Select "general"

3. Select "reset"

4. Select "reset location warnings"

5. Select "reset warnings"

**This restores all of your location based warnings for each app to the default, which in most cases is to ask you if you want to use your location when you first use the app.**

For BlackBerry:

1. Access the camera on your phone

2. BEFORE taking the picture, click on the "BlackBerry" symbol to right of the green "call" button

3. Scroll down and select "options"

4. Scroll down to the "Geotagging" and select "disabled"

5. Select the white arrow button to the left of the "end call" button to save your settings.

For the Google Android:

1. Open the camera on your phone

2. Open the menu on the left side of the camera app

3. Select "store location" and make sure it is set to off

For the Samsung LG:

1. Go to the main menu

2. Open photos

3. Select "settings and info"

4. Select "location"

5. Click next

6. Select "off"

If your phone is not on this list or you want to turn off geotagging on your GPS enabled camera, check your user manual or call the company directly.

(Copyright (c) 2011 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)