GPS-enabled devices (such as most newer cell phones and digital cameras) plant hidden “geotags” into any photos they take. These geotags contain GPS co-ordinates which are precise and accurate enough to pinpoint a specific house. A geotag may also contain a timestamp showing exactly when the photo in which it is embedded was taken. If you don’t believe it, look up “geotag” online.

At least some of these devices allow users to SUPPOSEDLY disable this feature, but would it be wise to trust the manufacturers of such devices that the feature was REALLY disabled? No, because corporations often collude with Big Brother, not only because they are sometimes compelled to do so, but also for profit.

If you don’t believe that, consider this as a cautionary example: remember when independent researchers discovered that Microsoft had secretly planted the NSA_KEY in the registry of Windows, in order to enable the NSA to crack Windows’ encryption? (The NSA is the American National Security Agency, and it’s ten times larger and far more secretive than the CIA.) Not only does this allow the NSA, without a court order, to poke their noses into everyone’s confidential business (such as online banking), but no doubt also obtains an additional “revenue stream” for Microsoft from the NSA.

Now consider this: no doubt the “boys in blue” are lurking at this forum every day. In fact, they probably continually run computer programs to monitor this forum and report back to them on any posts made that might merit additional investigation. All of which means that if you post a photo of an extraction to this forum that was taken with a GPS-enabled device, don’t be surprised if you get a little visit from “your town’s finest”.

Of course, each person is legally constrained not to advise others how to avoid getting caught breaking the law. But given the above situation, surely these “others” can figure it out for themselves.

Why does a digicam need a GPS? If you are taking pictures with your phone I get it, but a regular digital camera?

WoW!!! I am really worried about that! OH MY!!!



OMG, a little visit? Are you serious? You believe that?

First off no one on this web site is doing anything illegal.

Now I can imagine the cops would love to speak to this SWIM character, but come on, REALLY? A little visit?

The town I live in, population 300 + or - has one cop. So based on a photo that was posted by someone named SWIM, some intelligence gathering organization is going to look at the picture determine that its worthy of an investigation and then its going to get the towns bravest to pay a little visit? REALLY?

I am not questioning weather or not the technology/capability exists. Thats just not the way local law enforcement operates and federal law enforcement is not going to interdict a situation where a suspect named SWIM claims to have extracted a couple of grams of something called spice. This is very costly in time and resources for wild goose chase that probably wont get you a conviction. Even if it did all that work for a couple of grams of spice?

REALLY?

just be sure to remove the exif data from your pix, and if you use m$ your crazy anyway.

I guess a little measure of protection with regards to photos is to read those more complex files with meta data in them into a program and write out BMP data. Just a suggestion...

Here's a little info on Embedded data

Ice House, the sarcasm is not at all humorous. I can say with certainty that without the proper protection, they WILL be on your ass. You acknowledge that you give them the chance to, but say that you just don't believe they work that way. Maybe they are changing the way they work. Think outside of your small one cop town. Maybe you are protected, but not everyone else is, encourage no carelessness please. Someone might be able to pump someone else into believing that little visit can go a long way.

Do what you want, I'm just saying.

my dad is a retied high-po and they go to house search and even get search warrants for less then this. if a "trusted" sourcessay there is something here or there they can do one of two things, routine cop knock, watch your house, or even just go to a judge say they have suspicions from a trusted source and they will have there warrant. this is no joke they have been doing the GPS pic tracing for almost 4 yrs, old news but still people should hear it...

also they have infrared scanners that at 20,000 feet can pin point any cell phone number. and they can listen to your conversation. there is so much more sophisticated things then this that you have to worry about, but what im saying is don't be stupid watch your ass.

here is a routine shake down of what happens.
first they will drive my your house,
then they will call in your house address,
find out who you are and if this is your residence by pulling your electric bill, all of which are public and need no warrant,
next they will pull your tag and get your driver's license, by doing this they have your dl picture and know what you look like;
then they can put a "HOT" lead on your profile meaning when you get stopped they will search you car, they even then mark your car as hot so if a cop is just calling out tags they will pull you over for a unsafe lain change, out tag light, no signal, they don't necessarily have to have a reason they will think of one when they pull you over.
last of all they will follow you, watch you, and your first mess up they will strike, they wait 1month to 1yr and just document everything some time before they bust for a lab!

but good news is 70% of all bust are do to snitches... just do like me have no friends but the nextas hahahah.

Damn, thanks for the wake up call!

I'm geting really sick of all these location services built into every piece of mobile technology these days. It's permanently turned off on my iPhone unless I need to use GMaps.

Maybe the administrators on this site can add a script that removes the EXIF location data when attaching images.

"but good news is 70% of all bust are do to snitches... just do like me have no friends but the nextas hahahah."

yeah that and dont talk on or carry phones...

+

dont surf the net on a line in your name

use a VPN sevice in someone elses name

"just because your paranoid doesnt mean they aren't watchin"

or use cable which is a shared ban-with so they cant pull exact ip address. im not to tech savvy but that's what i have heard may b hear say but ill let some one else confirm or debunk

they use MAC address to pinpoint users and locs

A cpe or customer premise equipment is registered to the user with a MAC address among other details

cpe = cable modem,

trust me your ISP knows everything about your household, every type and make of computer and its unique address and the popes dont need a warrant for that info

A MAC address isn't for location... It's more like a serial number.

And while I won't argue that the geo data thing is possible.. I'm sorry, but you're taking it too far.

If they obtain information on you like that, that doesn't mean they can just come bust in your house and arrest you. There are still laws. And they can't arrest you for breaking them by breaking them themselves in the process. If their reasonable suspicion or evidence is obtained illegally (violating your privacy) then the case is thrown out.

Yeah, I'm sure they could find ways around it..

But when it comes down to it.. I refuse to live my life in an Orwellian society. I'm sorry, I won't do it. I try to live a life that is good and moral. I'm nice to people, and I help others whenever I can. I obey all the laws that I agree with. The only ones I have ever broke are non-violent drug possession ones. That's it.

I saw someones signature, on here I think, was a quote from Krishnamurti.. Something to the extent of "being well adjusted in a sick society is no sign of health". I think that sums it up.

I'm not going to run crazy and do 'bad' things. But when I do things that someone thinks should be illegal even though I benefit from it without hurting anyone in the process.. well yeah I don't want to goto jail or prison (again), but I don't want to live my life hiding who I am and what I'm doing. It feels good to be free and honest. And while I maintain more safety and secrecy now than I ever have before (because I don't want to go back to prison), I'm also repaying my karmic debt, and feeling happier than ever.

There's no reason to freak out about that stuff. Be careful, sure.. But it's not 1984.

Oh, also.. So far in this thread I've read a lot of things.. Can anyone back up these statements with some sources please? Especially the numbers and percentages, I'd love to see some real statistics on that.

no its not 1984 it is 2010, a tad worse than 1984

and a cpes MAC plus nic MAC is mapped to customer account data despite what you may think.

The feds wouldnt let us use such a system unless they had complete control and data acquisition capabilities of said system, and all comms systems (I-net was funded by DARPA) were built on tracking first, or they wouldnt let us use it, nor would it work correctly.

Let me spoonfeed you Networking lesson #1, the Network layer (IP) uses the Data-Link layer (MAC) via the Physical layer to find your NIC (computer), how else would you expect data to get served to it?

Why must we provide you sources?, ever hear of a CIA funded project called google? supposedly its your friend...

heres a source for you anyway.

Remember folks the answer to 1984 is 1776

Take precautions but I think it's kinda delusional to think that the authorities are going to the extent of pursuing a couple
of grams of dmt they found on the net.
Has there been a dmt bust that haven't been related to other crimes or undiscret practice?
Has there been a bust related to geotags which do not involve "serious crimes" like
murder, smuggling, trafficing etc...

Thanx for the headsup man

But i Doubt the police in my part of the world have even gotten round to integrating the internet with there "services" ,never mind all this stuff. I think this is mainly important for people living in 1st world nanny states. But still definitly worth knowing dude, thanx for looking out for us

The sky is falling!

There's enough forum posts and illegal downloads for millions of people to go jail.. If the government becomes more like nazis.

ice house The sky is falling! lol

he is right were all getting worked up over some cia bs, the feds arnt going to step in on some forms exp a science form exp this one, for a g or 3.5 that would waist so much money and the govn already hurting and is in sooo sooo much debt... when i throw out my numbers there for the usa or Oklahoma. were we have 2 horses and a sheriff yeeehaaaw, there is nothing to really worry about, just remember big brother is watching and dont start talking about mass producing of kilos and interstates travel. remember the gov makes lots of money regulating drug trade and traffic. you think that they "destroy" the drugs they find in a raid, no it goes back out there to find bigger dealers and make more money on the war on drugs, that only make organized crime more sophisticated, and make crooked politicians money. aka prohibition.

as far as ip address goes, it will take them a wile to get past the porn to find the good stuff LMAO!

have a good Monday guys see ya tonight

I'm just trying to be honest guys. What makes you think they have to see talk of this or that. They might clip one order or one email of a kilo order, and consider that one uses many places/addresses different companies to order. They might think one has hidden assets they can rip off. Who knows what they are brewing up. Pictures or not, ip or mac, it's whatever, if you don't want to hide around, don't. But you better be extra careful when rolling in the real world, because you leave your scent in shady places, they will come crawling out the shadows.

Still, I'm obviously delusional. I do agree with the thread title.