How to find out where you took a picture
Your digital gallery is a one-way portal to precious moments from the past. Maybe you find a cool picture you forgot about and want to send it to your friends and family. Tap or click here for seven ways to privately share photos.
If you find snapshots from old vacations or road trips, you might think to yourself, “I’d love to go there again.” If you can’t remember where that photo was taken, you might think you’re out of luck. In reality, you might be able to track down that location again.
It all comes down to the technical details embedded into each picture you take. (More on that later.) In this handy guide, we’ll share a few nifty ways that can reveal exactly where your old photos were taken.
Your metadata holds the answers
If you’re not sure what that means, here’s a quick refresher. Every digital photo has data embedded into the image file. We call this metadata. The specific type of metadata we’re covering in this article is EXIF data, which you can find in some TIFF and JPEG images.
Think of EXIF data as an image’s personal ID. You probably carry around some identification, like a driver’s license. It has your name, birthdate and other important facts about yourselves.
Digital images are similar. Many of them carry around their unique information through EXIF files. Open an EXIF file and you can see a ton of information about the image, including GPS coordinates.
Bear in mind that EXIF data won’t be on every image you encounter. You will only be able to spot it if the picture you’re analyzing was taken from a camera with GPS features.
These types of high-tech cameras tag the image with location data, so anyone combing through the EXIF data will find the coordinates. Tap or click here for forensic tools that expose any photo’s hidden data.
You can do this on your phone or computer
If you want to see where you snapped a picture on an Android or iPhone, you’ll have to hope you turned on location tagging at the time of your photoshoot. If so, here is how you can track down a picture’s point of origin.
Listen up, iPhone users
Your apps are watching everywhere you go unless you change this setting
We used to download apps, enable permissions and share data without giving it a second thought. These days, most people want more control over their info.
That starts with protecting yourself from endless data breaches, leaks and hacks. When was the last time you checked to make sure your info isn’t floating around the web for anyone to find? Tap or click to check your email address against a database of major hacks.
How to see what the kids are doing on their phones
In this modern world of digital dangers and threats, keeping children safe while online is of the utmost importance to all parents. There are inappropriate websites and apps, cyberbullying, sexting, the risk of internet and digital addiction and worst of all, online predators that your child can be exposed to.
Privacy warning: Researchers find location trackers in 450 apps
There’s a tradeoff when using apps on your phone or smart devices. While apps can help streamline daily tasks, keep track of finances, entertain you or your kids or help you keep in constant communication with friends and family, they can also have some downsides.
Hidden map on your phone shows everywhere you've been and the photos you took
GPS apps like Google Maps make navigating unfamiliar cities so much easier. It even has a clever feature that you might not even take advantage of, Street View. You can use it for things like creating your own stories and time traveling. Tap or click here for 10 ways to use Street View you never thought of before.
Is someone listening to everything you say? Look for this clue
Ever get that feeling your phone knows you a bit too well? It’s not your imagination. From location tracking to trackers that follow you around the web, there’s a constant stream of info coming from your device.
Some apps can even use your phone’s microphone or camera when you’re not expecting it. And until recently, there was no way to tell when this was happening. Instagram was caught red-handed doing just that, and we only found out because of a new privacy feature baked into Apple iOS 14. Tap or click here to see how Instagram got caught.
This app helps you get where you're going without tracking you using GPS
Remember the days before GPS was around and trying to navigate through an unfamiliar city? Struggling to read one of those old paper maps could turn into a nightmare real quick and many times you’d have to swallow your pride and ask a local for directions.
Security tip: How to erase everything you ever searched for on Google
Does the idea of Google knowing your every move creep you out?
Think about it, the tech giant knows every car that you’ve ever looked up and it knows more personal details, like what medical conditions you have, which coworkers you’ve searched for and even your home address. Tap or click here to turn off Google location tracking.
5 ways to limit your phone's location tracking
What an amazing feat of technology that your phone’s GPS lets you instantly search for nearby cafes, get traffic alerts and find your friends, among countless other location-sensitive tasks. And parents can breathe easier knowing where the kids are located at the tap of a button.
Update the Target App now or you may pay more than you need to
We recently told you about Walgreen’s “smart coolers” that monitor customers to customize their targeted ads.
Love it or hate it, it’s just another way physical stores leverage technology to enhance their profitability. And with the threat of online shopping at an all-time high, they are looking for all the help they can.
Cool ways to use your phone's camera that don't involve photos
The camera in your smartphone and tablet is pretty amazing. You can use it to take high resolution photos instantly wherever you go. But did you know there are plenty of other uses for your smartphone’s camera? I’ll share eight new ways to use your camera you’ve probably never thought of before.