Now's a good time for a glimpse of my mountain post-fire damage. Two fires, actually: the upper left is still recovering from December, and the rest is from recent burning. (Screencapped the original photo, for those getting all antsy about Alfred, but if you find me, and visit, give me 4 hours notice to bake something nice!)

@MLClark

does screencapping help confuse geolocation, then?

@holon42

A lot of photos carry extra information in the metadata. That can definitely make geolocation easier for many search algorithms!

@MLClark

yes, i know and keep mine OFF, but J indicated that none of that data was necessary, just the photo, so i was wondering whether somehow screencapping further hid the location.

it would be handy.

@holon42

At some point it really won't matter, because the sheer volume of data online to match location will always leap ahead of defenses.

For maximal safety, a good full scrub of personal data is probably best.

I don't ever share photos of *other* people's homes, but I have enough to worry about simply from local stalkers not to be as worried about abstract threats.

(Unless they want to come over for tea! Then I need baking preferences in advance!)

@MLClark @holon42
The *good* news is that coso automatically scrubs meta/exif data from all images posted to the platform.
So in Alfred's case that information is not available to him.

@stueytheround @MLClark @holon42

Also all Alfred's pic geolocation stuff is public so nothing is done via DM - followers only or unlisted

which means if I upload a pic only way for someone else to use Alfred to geolocate is public which means I'll see it being done - we can all visit Alfred's posts & replies to view all geolocated posts anytime we want - even if the original post asking for Alfred to geolocate something is deleted Alfred's reply won't be 😉

@ecksmc @stueytheround @MLClark @holon42

That’s good but what’s to stop anyone from using the same information in other AI’s ?

@Museek @ecksmc @stueytheround @holon42

Definitely a good reminder to be much more cautious with what we share elsewhere, at the very least.

@MLClark @ecksmc @stueytheround @holon42
Right but even things shared here might be used elsewhere. Even if EXIF/metadata is stripped.

If Alfred can do it, so can any other AI, it would seem, since we don’t know where that information is drawn from.

@Museek

I know the visual component can be scary, but we leave a lot of digital detritus most every time we visit a site, or use our phones.

It's a little like the panic some had about vaccines implanting chips to track you. Why would that be necessary when most of us are bleeding info everywhere, via smartphones especially?

As @ecksmc notes, it's definitely a threat - but it's always been a threat, in the background radiation of most all of our activities online.

@stueytheround @holon42

@MLClark @ecksmc @stueytheround @holon42 yes but now it’s exponentially more accessible.

@Museek @ecksmc @stueytheround @holon42

I was reading up recently on the fact that most hacking scams aren't anywhere near as elaborate as made out to be on film and TV. Some of the most effective rely on manipulating human behaviour to get people to provide their passwords in the moment, and go from there.

We have a LOT to worry about. This is part of it, but it's also part of a huge pre-existing tapestry of data vulnerabilities. Definitely something to try to combat holistically, if we can!

@MLClark @Museek @stueytheround @holon42

Yes social engineering is probably the biggest method used to get people to reveal stuff 'the art of manipulating, influencing, or deceiving you in order to gain control over your computer system: and revealing personal info about yourself like credit card, bank info etc'

Hack the person is a tried and tested method dates way back

@ecksmc @MLClark @Museek @stueytheround @holon42

Applied for a job through Indeed and got an email reply back suspiciously fast to move on to the "next stage." The link included a request for SSN and front/back image of ID.

When I circled back to Indeed to report the post, it had already been suspended. But, I wonder if anyone fell for it? People really desperate for a job and not super savvy might just figure it was a hoop they should jump through, since most applications go nowhere.