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SALT LAKE CITY — It's become second nature to us: Take a cute cellphone picture and post it online to show off to the world. But there's hidden information in those pictures that tell criminals a frightening amount of information about you.
I think they're just blissfully unaware people are out there using this information for harm. They can take this information and do things with it we could never imagine.
–Sariah Donnahoo, Utah ICAC
#donnahoo_quote
It's "safety first" for Salt Lake County mom Morgan — on the playground and in real life. But there's a threat she and many parents are not aware of when she snaps cellphone pictures of her kids.
"Pictures like that, you have to show the world how absolutely cute my kids are," Morgan said.
She responded to a KSL Facebook post requesting family photos. Using a program we downloaded on the Internet, for free, we took the pictures and quickly found out what kind of phone Morgan uses, what day and time the photos were taken, and — more importantly — where.
Morgan's child's school, a family outing, and her neighborhood — all with almost exact longitudes and latitudes.
"That's just concerning that it's that easy to find out were that picture was taken; scary," Morgan said.
"Parents don't understand the technology they're using and they're giving to their children," said Sariah Donnahoo, with the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC).
ICAC has been using more advanced programs to track criminals for years. Now they're available to anyone with an Internet connection and basic computer skills. They rely on geotagging — a feature on most smartphones that records bits of data, including GPS coordinates. "It can be down to a certain amount of square footage," Donnahoo said.
We discovered sensitive information like that can be posted on sites like icanstalku.com which allows anonymous Internet users to post links to people's photos and instantly map their location. That's where we found 15-year-old Kim's Twitter page.
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Using a different program, we double-checked the GPS location on photos taken in her bedroom. This time we were a couple blocks off course, but 10 minutes of searching and we were introducing ourselves to Kim and her parents.
"I was weirded out," Kim said. "I didn't know what was going on."
Kim thought she was already Internet safe: her Facebook account is set to private and she doesn't post her address or last name on Twitter. What she posts is harmless — raising money for underprivileged kids and photos of idol, Justin Bieber. But what was hidden in those photos she had no idea.
The fact that Kim doesn't know who found her online and posted her information on icanstalku.com bothers her even more. "I'm worried what's going to happen later on," she said.
Unfortunately, that's something Kim has little control over. Once the information is out, it's out.
Kim's parents didn't want to be interviewed but told us they've tried to warn their daughter about Internet safety before. They hope strangers showing up on her doorstep drives home the point to her and all teens.
"I think they're just blissfully unaware people are out there using this information for harm. They can take this information and do things with it we could never imagine," Donnahoo said.
The good news is depending on what kind of phone you have, it can be very easy to turn off the geotagging feature. In many phones, you go into picture-taking mode, select options, and then unselect "location" or "geotrackers."
Email: sdallof@ksl.com
