Cell Phone Cameras and Privacy Concerns

With today’s lifestyle being so fast paced, many parents feel they are are almost forced to give their child a cell phone. However, when making the decision to give a cell phone to a child, we should check out the phone and learn whether the features that it has are really needed. A classic example is a cell phone with a camera. In today’s market, it is difficult to purchase a phone without a camera.

A great feature for newly driving teens is to have a cell phone with a global positioning system (GPS) but combine GPS with a camera and you may be giving predators specific location information without even realizing this is happening. This is why cell phone cameras and privacy do not go together.

Digital photographs contain information that is not visible from simply looking at the image. This data (camera settings, type, file name, etc) is called Exchangeable Image File format, or Exif data for short. The amount and nature of data embedded in the image file varies depending on the camera. Cameras with GPS capabilities enabled record and automatically include the GPS coordinates of the camera in the image when a photograph is taken. The GPS coordinates enable anyone to locate where the picture was taken simply by looking at a picture’s Exif data.

Most people don’t realize that when they take a picture and send it to someone else, the receiving person can easily view the Exif data, take the GPS coordinates and plug them into a mapping program or at a mapping website like MapQuest and see the location of the camera.

As a teacher, we have an opportunity to explain to our students the dangers of cell phone cameras and privacy concerns. Here is a check list of things people might do to prevent location data from being included with pictures:

• Know the equipment’s capabilities.
• If the phone is GPS enabled know how to disable this and do so before ever taking a picture.
• If you don’t turn the GPS feature off then you should learn how to remove the Exif Data using programs like Irfanview. This is a free program and can be downloaded and installed to view and edit Exif Data in pictures. Get the free software here: http://www.irfanview.com/
• Talk with everyone who uses the camera or phone and explain how they may be sending their location information to anyone they send a picture to.
• Have rules for what type, when, and to whom pictures can be sent. Talk with your kids about their cell phone use and families should complete a cell phone user agreement.
• Check any sites you upload your pics to by downloading one after its on the site and use a Exif reader type program to check to see if the data has been removed. If not, delete the picture from the site. Some social network sites strip off Exif data when someone uploads an image to those sites.
• Keep up on understanding the technology that your putting into your family’s hands and that children are using today.

How can we, as teachers, protect our students from any dangers of technology, like cell phone cameras?

From Professional Learning Board’s online continuing education course for teachers: Internet Safety: Protecting Children in an Online World