Geolocation data and images
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posted 7 months ago
Update: the bug has been fixed
Update 2: tomorrow I'll investigate how many images were affected and back-update them to have the metadata removed
Update 3: everything went through successfully!
Hi all, I saw an uploaded image by lycrajock1978 assuming that SP would expose people's geolocation data in images.
SP doesn't expose such sensitive information; actually it actively removes them.
You can use any EXIF viewer and see what metadata are stored in the images.
would be great, if we could shed some light into this.
Either it's misinformation or there is something missing on my part. I'd like to clear this up before it gets to a witch hunt.
Last edited: 7 months ago
posted 7 months ago
I checked a couple of my uploaded images using en EXIF viewer, and none of them have any geolocation data on them. So it all looks good!
posted 7 months ago
I found some images on some profiles that had EXIF metadata geolocation data in them!
I'm sure that our image uploader has a specific step just to drop these metadata informations.
I will now investigate what images are affected or if the implementation isn't doing what it's supposed to do.
I'll keep yall posted.
posted 7 months ago
I think you are working too hard on this admin boss.
People here should understand the nature of a public profile. They post at their comfort level, with the sufficient precautions they should take.
You shouldn't have to guard them to their desire level.
posted 7 months ago
posted by: LycranteI think you are working too hard on this admin boss.
posted 7 months ago
The bug got introduced when we fixed another bug about rotated images.
I fixed this now, and it is working exactly how it was designed in the first place: all informations of images are dropped.
Since not all images are affected, I will investigate the extent of this and further backwards-update images with these informations.
posted 7 months ago
posted by: LycranteI think you are working too hard on this admin boss. People here should understand the nature of a public profile. They post at their comfort level, with the sufficient precautions they should take. You shouldn't have to guard them to their desire level.
posted 7 months ago
posted by: spandexpartyadminThe bug got introduced when we fixed another bug about rotated images. I fixed this now, and it is working exactly how it was designed in the first place: all informations of images are dropped. Since not all images are affected, I will investigate the extent of this and further backwards-update images with these informations.
posted 7 months ago
Dear admin, thanks a lot for fixing this and thanks for hie you’ve dealt with the situation.
I want to apologize for the ‘strong’ message that I had to send, but from my position it was the only way to give everybody a fair chance to take measures.
Looking forward to continue contributing to this site and community. ❤️
posted 7 months ago
Good morning all, yes the image uploader has been fixed.
there is still the possibility that some images have the geolocation information attached for images uploaded in the past months. much older images aren't affected.
I'll run a script that will update all affected images. that will most probably take a day. till then you can check if your images have geolocation in them and keep them private.
you can check an online EXIF viewer, e.g. https://linangdata.com/exif-reader/, and put your image in there. it will show a map if the geolocation headers haven't (been dropped that have been uploaded with already; SP never added geolocation additionally)
thank you for bringing this up and your understanding!
posted by: SWIMandDIVEloverHow is it possible to check that there is no private information within them?
posted 7 months ago
Good evening all, the investigation took longer. but the script went through!
With this I can now update the very images that had geolocation information in them. that will probably take all of tomorrow (again, image by image). It wasn't as widespread as I first assumed, but more to that later.
Cheers!
UPDATE: the process has been started and I'm already happy with the results! It'll still take another 3 hours according to my estimate. updating these images will also reduce them in size by quite a lot, so they'll load even faster.
UPDATE 2: everything went through successfully!
Last edited: 7 months ago
