"Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification meta data to various media such as photographs, video, websites, SMS messages or RSS feeds."
This has some great benefits to Smartphone users, mainly as a way of finding information while out on the road. For example, Google Maps has an embedded feature that allows users to open a map, have their location pinpointed, and then find out what particular stores are nearby, depending on the user's search parameters.
Software for geo-tagging is based on a Smartphone's GPS capabilities and embeds the image's latitude and longitude into the meta tag of the image itself - this is only able to be viewed by specific programs that are designed to use this particular information.
For those of us who use our Smartphones to get around, find convenient stores or restaurants in unfamiliar cities, or even just like to know where we are, this is a fantastic option in our devices.
So for those of you that don't like others to know where you are, and vehemently avoid the use of programs such as FourSquare or Places on Facebook, remember that every time you upload an image to your social media feeds, or even send a text message to friends, your device will let them know just where you are. Whether you like it or not - it even goes for regular cell phone users in terms of text (SMS) messages.
This also stands as a warning to those that are quite happy utilizing these services - your images being innocently uploaded can give away your home location or other sensitive information. By all means, upload pictures of last weekend's party at the local bar, but remember to keep the private stuff private...
No comments:
Post a Comment