What information are you sharing inadvertently?
Twitter is great. It’s perfect for us A.D.D. types. And all around Twitter, other services have risen up — e.g. Woofer, Group Tweet, and TwitPic — that extend the information sharing goodness. But if you don’t sanitize your submissions, you could be sharing more than you wanted to.
Recently there was an incident where Adam Savage of Mythbuster fame posted a photo taken in front of his house. Well, some enterprising geek discovered he could get a very good idea of where Mr. Savage lives due to the latitude and longitude data stored in the picture file by the phone (called “geotagging”, many smart phones and some digital cameras have this ability).
Fast forward several blog-o-ramas later, and we now have I Can Stalk U…a website that scans Twitter postings for photos, looks for geotag’s, and reports statistics on how many people are sharing details on the location of said photos…and occasionally one (un-)lucky winner get’s a public @ telling everyone what their geotag info reveals (where they are, or where they were, at a given time).
I’m not taking a side; as a fan of freedom, free speech, and privacy, I think people should be able to share as much…or as little…information as they wish to. But I think it should be “informed” sharing. We can make the argument that this loss of privacy is the price to be paid for ignorance, laziness, or failure to understand the full capabilities of the technology one embraces. But really, who can keep up with the full set of features of their latest tech gadget? And if you’re like me, you have a new one as often as the boss (read: my wife) will let you get one.
Anyway, it’s important to understand the implications of what you may be doing, and make informed decisions. Enjoy!
I Can Stalk U – Raising awareness about inadvertent information sharing.
And the twitter feed Creepy Stalker Guy
Thanks Jeff!
I’m one of the conspirators behind (and in front of) ICanStalkU, and the guy who figured out the Adam Savage thing.
Your sentiments are exactly the same as ours, and why we started the project: Empower folks with the information to make informed decisions about the lever of risk that they wish to take.
Look for our talks at HOPE and DEFCON on the subject.
- Larry “haxorthematrix” Pesce
Yeah, I know who you are Larry. I know a LOT about you, actually…how’s that rash, has it cleared up yet? =)
j/k I’m a regular PaulDotCom listener. I used to be part of http://www.SecThis.com security podcast, before we all got too busy and let it die.
Anyway, I didn’t want to give out many names or details…I remember the story vividly, but couldn’t recall if there was any legal fallout. I quick google didn’t reveal much on how Mr. Savage and his attorneys felt about the ordeal, but I figured vague was the way to go.