Carta Tierra

Social Media Roundup

Geotags and LocationBased Social Networking
Applications, OPSEC and protecting unit safety

Social Media Roundup

Introduction
• In August of 2010, Adam Savage, of “MythBusters,” took a photo of his vehicle using his smartphone. He then posted the photo to his Twitter account including the phrase “off to work.” Since the photo was taken by his smartphone, the imagecontained metadata reveling the exact geographical location the photo was taken. So by simply taking and posting a photo, Savage revealed the exact location of his home, the vehicle he drives and the time he leaves for work.

•

•

Read the full story here: http://nyti.ms/917hRh

Social Media Roundup

Introduction
The following was published in Wired Magazine in 2009
• “I ran alittle experiment. On a sunny Saturday, I spotted a woman in Golden Gate Park taking a photo with a 3G iPhone. Because iPhones embed geodata into photos that users upload to Flickr or Picasa, iPhone shots can be automatically placed on a map. At home I searched the Flickr map, and score—a shot from today. I clicked through to the user’s photostream and determined it was the woman I had seen earlier.After adjusting the settings so that only her shots appeared on the map, I saw a cluster of images in one location. Clicking on them revealed photos of an apartment interior—a bedroom, a kitchen, a filthy living room. Now I know where she lives.”

Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/bJqYmm

Social Media Roundup

Introduction
• As the stories above indicate, privacy and security aren’twhat they used to be. With advancements in technology, enhanced GPS capabilities and smartphones with built-in GPS, managing privacy and security is a fulltime job. The Army is always working to protect itself against security breaches, but with new technologies come new risks. Today, more than ever, it is vitally important that Army leaders, Soldiers and Army civilians understand what kind ofdata they are broadcasting and what they can do to protect themselves and their families.

•

Social Media Roundup

What is geotagging?
• Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification to photographs, video, websites and SMS messages. It is the equivalent of adding a 10-digit grid coordinate to everything you post on the internet. Geotags are automatically embedded inpictures taken with smartphones. Many people are unaware of the fact that the photos they take with their smartphones and load to the Internet have been geotagged. Photos posted to photo sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa can also be tagged with location, but it is not an automatic function.

•

•

Social Media Roundup

Geotagging photos
• Photos have used geotagging for quite some time.Certain formats like the JPEG format allow for geographical information to be embedded within the image and then read by picture viewers. This shows the exact location where a picture was taken. Most modern digital cameras do not automatically add geolocation metadata to pictures, but that is not always true. Camera owners should study their camera’s manual and understand how to turn off GPSfunctions. On photo sharing sites, people can tag a location on their photos, even if their camera does not have a GPS function. A simple search for “Afghanistan” on Flickr reveals thousands of location tagged photographs that have been uploaded.

•

•

Social Media Roundup

OPSEC Concerns
 Tagging photos with an exact location on the Internet allows random people to track an individual'slocation and correlate it with other information. Soldiers deploy to areas all over the world. Some locations are public, others are classified. Soldiers should not tag their uploaded photos with a location. Publishing photos of classified locations can be detrimental to mission success, and such actions are in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.



Social Media Roundup...