That online post or pic can reveal your locale
Source: Agencies |
May 10, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN explosion of people checking into social networks is being exploited by mobile application makers and private detectives, who say they can use people's online chatter and photos to track them and find out where they live.
In March, Apple stopped downloads of a "stalker" mobile app that told men where women around them were "hanging out," using only publicly available information from social networks. But other readily available apps can do the same and more, say online investigators who use them.
When a person uses a mobile phone to post a tweet on Twitter or upload a photo to Flickr, sometimes so-called geolocation data can be found lurking under the tweet or photo. This can be used to track down their local haunts, including their home or where they study.
"It is quite easy sometimes to work out which house a tweet is coming from," said Neil Smith, a former police officer turned online researcher in Britain.
Geolocation research is a fast-evolving area as most apps are built on the back of freely available open-source software.
One of Smith's favorite apps was developed by Loannis Kakavas, who aptly called his invention Creepy. The free app collates geolocation data attached to a person's tweets and pictures to figure out where they might work, said Smith, who says he uses it to track down perpetrators of insurance fraud for corporate clients.
An array of social networks like Twitter, Foursquare, Twitpic, Flickr, YFrog, Gowalla, and Lockerz can provide such geolocation data, Kakavas said.
Some of these websites allow users to disable geolocation, but others depend on it.
In March, Apple stopped downloads of a "stalker" mobile app that told men where women around them were "hanging out," using only publicly available information from social networks. But other readily available apps can do the same and more, say online investigators who use them.
When a person uses a mobile phone to post a tweet on Twitter or upload a photo to Flickr, sometimes so-called geolocation data can be found lurking under the tweet or photo. This can be used to track down their local haunts, including their home or where they study.
"It is quite easy sometimes to work out which house a tweet is coming from," said Neil Smith, a former police officer turned online researcher in Britain.
Geolocation research is a fast-evolving area as most apps are built on the back of freely available open-source software.
One of Smith's favorite apps was developed by Loannis Kakavas, who aptly called his invention Creepy. The free app collates geolocation data attached to a person's tweets and pictures to figure out where they might work, said Smith, who says he uses it to track down perpetrators of insurance fraud for corporate clients.
An array of social networks like Twitter, Foursquare, Twitpic, Flickr, YFrog, Gowalla, and Lockerz can provide such geolocation data, Kakavas said.
Some of these websites allow users to disable geolocation, but others depend on it.
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