Industry guru Dave Taylor offers tech support on technical and business topics, including iPhone, iPod, Microsoft Windows, Sony PSP, cellphones, online advertising, CSS, Web design, business, Unix, Linux, SEO, Mac OS X, and shell script programming.     


Prevent my iPhone from recording location data in photos?

A friend just pointed out to me that because my iPhone 4 has a GPS built into it, it always knows where I am, and that it records that information in every picture I take with the phone. Since I often post pictures online, I don't want them to all have my exact location hidden within. Is there a way to turn this off?


Dave's Answer:

Your friend is savvy, good for them! One of the things that most people don't realize is that smartphones with built-in GPS systems are indeed calculating the latitude/longitude for each spot that you take a photo and embedding it in the "EXIF" information in the photo file.

Why is this an issue? Imagine that you're taking pictures of your cat being cute while in your apartment. When you post your homemade LOLCAT snap, would you be happy if it included your home address right there on the image itself? Probably not. But that's in essence what it does.

Let me show you by utilizing a Mac program called GraphicConverter to show the EXIF information from a photo taken on my own iPhone:

iphone camera photo disable geoloc exif 0

As you can see, the exact lat/long of where I took this photo is included in the additional information with this photo and if I feed it to a mapping application (or with many graphics apps, simply click on a "location" or "map" or "gps" tab) it'll show me that exact location on a map. Yikes!

To turn this off with your iPhone, you'll need to jump into your settings...

iphone camera photo disable geoloc exif 1

Now tap on "Location Services":

iphone camera photo disable geoloc exif 2

If you're like me, there are a LOT of applications on your IPhone that are tracking your location...

iphone camera photo disable geoloc exif 3

Scroll down to "Camera" and tap on the "ON" switch to toggle it:

iphone camera photo disable geoloc exif 4

That's all there is to it. You've just turned off location services for the Camera app. Now if you take another photograph and upload it to an app that can show EXIF information, it'll just have blank data instead of a location:

iphone camera photo disable geoloc exif 5

Definitely a good thing, and something that should probably default to being disabled on new phones in my opinion. What do you think?


More Useful iPhone and Cell Phone Help Articles:
✔   How do you share an iPhone photo on Facebook?
All my friends have figured out the magic to take photos on their iPhone and upload them to Facebook. Everyone but me. How...
✔   Closed captioning for TV shows and movies on my iPhone?
Hey Dave, I saw your article from a few days about How to Turn on Closed Captioning in iTunes and am wondering if...
✔   How do I create location-based iPhone reminders?
Thanks to Siri, I've become a big fan of the Reminders app on my iPhone. Being able to say "remind me at 3pm...
✔   Enable Apple 2-Step Verification in iTunes?
I keep reading all these articles about iTunes account security and people having their accounts hacked. I have 2-step security verification set up...
✔   Turn an iTunes song into an iPhone ringtone?
I want to have song from my song list in iTunes into a ringtone I can use on my iPhone? Is it even...

Let's stay in touch!
Sign up for my weekly AskDaveTaylor Newsletter and you'll receive even more tech and gadget help right to your inbox, along with exclusive news and industry updates. It's good stuff. I promise!
    Enter your name: and your email addr:  




Categorized: iPhone and Cell Phone Help   (Article 9837, Written by )
Tagged: apple iphone 4, digital photography, geolocation, location, privacy, security
Previous: How do I connect to my iPhone 4 Personal Hotspot via wifi?
Next: How do I buy an App (FaceTime) from the Mac App Store?




Reader Comments To Date: 1

Aseire said, on December 13, 2012 1:37 PM:

With IOS6.0.1 Location services are no longer directly under Settings but are now under Privacy (Settings, Privacy, Location services, Camera on/off).

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











I will never send you any unsolicited email. Ever.






Check This Out Too...

 
Look for Answers
Need Help? Ask Dave Taylor!


Follow Me on Pinterest

Find Me on Google+
ADT on G+
© 2002 - 2013 by Dave Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

Note: This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site. Further, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to my terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site. My lawyer says "Thanks".
"Ask Dave Taylor®" is a registered trademark of Intuitive Systems, LLC.