- Good afternoon, Mr. Commissioner! What happened?

[Rakhirandiseo]

Security Tales: Dangerous Metadata
Vladimir Bezmaly | 09.29.2017
- Good afternoon, Johann!


— We need to get information about Mr. A's movements. The problem is that he was quite far from here at the time, and that was two months ago. Moreover, his smartphone was using a different SIM card at the time, the number of which we don't know.

- What do we know?

- Mr. A is a passionate lover of photography. He romania whatsapp data hundreds, if not thousands, of them on his phone.

— Does he look at the photos?

- Of course, and he loves to brag about them.

- Excellent! Come back in a week. Naturally, I can't guarantee anything. But I'll try to help you.

A week has passed.

— Here is the history of his movements over the last year. Of course, these are not continuous routes, alas, but we did everything we could. It is good that he likes to take pictures and be photographed.

- But how?

— It turned out to be simple. With the help of photo apps, you can track the history of the device owner’s movements using the metadata contained in the photos.

- And what does this give us?

— If the app has access to the image gallery on the device, it can retrieve and analyze all the metadata in the photos, including the date and time, the exact location where the photo was taken, as well as the shooting speed and camera model.

— And you managed to gain access to this data?

- Yes! Well, I'm sure your subordinates will be able to put the routes on the map, because you have your own IT department?

- Of course, thank you very much!

There is a risk to user privacy as third-party camera apps that save a photo taken with a smartphone also have full access to the metadata of all images on the device.