**make sure tracking is turned off on your pics**

[kristinc]

Ok so about a month ago my multiples group forwarded around info about how there were issues with the Smartphone and how every time someone takes a picture with it and then posts it to an online forum that anyone could access tracking information that told exactly where the picture was taken. The story had interviews from local law enforcement who were saying that this was all the info sex offenders/child abductors needed to be able to grab a kid up...piece of cake. If they looked through the pics they could potentially see what the parents looked like...where the child goes to school or daycare...heck they could even see where in the house the child's room was if there were pics taken of the child in their bedroom I completely freaked and made sure to call my sil's who were the only people I knew who might be taking pictures of my kids with a smartphone....so I was thinking no worries...all safe now. Well after the whole is the MARK guy a creapo thing I wanted to double check that my photobucket setting were still set to private so they couldn't be taken and used by someone and guess what is now on photobucket......PHOTOBUCKET NOW HAS TRACKING ON THE PHOTOS YOU POST THERE!!!!! WHAT?!?! Now, I know that was not there before when I set my privacy settings However there is an option to NEVER have any tracking info on the pics you upload there....so I highly suggest that those with photobucket get there and change their settings!

ok long post over

[Hillargh]

Wow, that's scary. I don't understand the point of tracking pictures anyway, what purpose does it serve?

[blossomgoat]

I just looked and can't find a place to set my security for photobucket. HELP?

Found it. Phew.

[stevensmom]

I also set mine to where people cant copy/paste mine...even tho they can take a screen shot of it and go from there

[photomikey]

Originally Posted by Hillargh Wow, that's scary. I don't understand the point of tracking pictures anyway, what purpose does it serve?

Similar to having the date and time encoded with the photo (because 10 years from now you might not remember how old the kids were), some cameras (mostly camera phones) record gps data and record it with the photo. Some software (iPhoto, PhotoBucket, flickr) will make a map of your photos or show where they are taken. You can also search for things like "San Diego Zoo" and see various photos taken from that location.

You can generally turn this feature off in your camera, but you might enjoy having the data someday - as OP suggested, if it bothers you, I might suggest turning it off on the sites where you want to display your photos.

Generally, I think there is a pretty low probability of some stranger on the internet finding a photo of a random person, then tracking them down in person. I am not aware of it ever having happened.

[Winter]

Thanks for sharing. Off to check my PB account & smart phone!