Camera Location Privacy with iPhones

If you use an iPhone, you likely have some idea as to how your privacy can be violated given that Apple has ties with phone carriers.  Plus other apps like Facebook will try look at everything on your phone to which they can obtain access.

But many people have no idea just how dangerous this can be.  Let me demonstrate.

Here I am parked at the dentist and I took a quick photo of a lovely wall.

Nothing inherently dangerous here.  Nothing obvious anyway.

But if I go to my phone and open the Photos app to view the photo, it paints a larger picture.

Here, I clicked on the photo to view it full screen, then swiped the screen upwards and look what it has for me...

The camera had full access to my location data because (like most people) I just said ALLOW when it asked because I had no idea what it needed it for.

If I click on that map, it opens Apple Maps to let me see exactly where I was.

So what does that matter?  Nobody has this photo but me.    Well if you share photos like this with another iPhone user, this location data is also transferred with the photo.

Imagine you just started using a dating site and started chatting with a potential partner over the iPhone's built in SMS chat app.  You decide to exchange pics and you send that person a selfie on the couch at your home.   Would you also send this person your home address with the photo?   Well, too late because you already did.

You can tell the other person is using an iphone if their chat bubble is blue.  A green bubble indicates a different client (non-iphone) is communicating with your device which typically indicates android phones. 

I don't have an android phone anymore so I cannot verify if this location data is transferred in the same way.   However, I did email myself this example photo and then downloaded back to my phone and the location data had been stripped away.

So how can you be selfie safe?  iPhones have a Privacy section in Settings that is rather extensive.   Go to SETTINGS > PRIVACY > CAMERA and see all the apps that are trying to grab additional data using your camera.  If you're not sure, just de-select all of them.

Next, go to SETTINGS > PRIVACY > LOCATION SERVICES
First update your choice of apps that shouldn't need your location info. 
Next, click on CAMERA and change the setting to either NEVER or ASK NEXT TIME.  If you select ASK, it will ask you during each use.  If you have a legit need for this location stamping of the photos, feel free to use this.  But if you want to be safe, just leave it on NEVER.

But that doesn't strip existing location data from the images.  Nothing will.  But you can prevent the location data from being sent.
Click on the image you wish to share.  Then click the SHARE icon
Now at the top it will say "1 photo selected" and there will be a blue OPTIONS link under that.  Click the OPTIONS link.  It will open this screen.
If the photo has existing location data, it will BY DEFAULT include this data to be sent with the photo.  If you don't want that, de-select this option.

And finally, beware of the Apple reset.  When you update your phone via the SETTINGS app, it will apply the security updates and eventually reboot your phone.  When it applies the security fixes, it will often reset some of your settings to their initial factory default setting which may not be the setting you prefer.  So be sure to go back into these camera privacy settings and verify they are as you want them to be.

Stay safe #selfiesafe