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Topic:
US Army: Geotagged Facebook posts put soldiers' lives at risk
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
US Army: Geotagged Facebook posts put soldiers' lives at risk
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17311702
Quote:
posted: Soldiers' lives are being put at risk by geotagged photos - marked with a location - on social media sites like Facebook, the US Army has warned.
It says Facebook's new Timeline feature, which creates a map of places geotagged by users, also poses a risk to soldiers and their families
Many smartphones automatically geotag photos with GPS co-ordinates.
In 2007 four US Army helicopters were destroyed in Iraq after geotagged photos were posted on the internet.
Get off that Facebook and soldier, soldier!
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I radiate more heat than light.
I know what you're trying to do but you're just sailing another failboat over the falls. - imaloon1
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ZigmundZag
Title: Grammar Nazi
Posts: 1,211
Registered: 2002-3-25 23:03:00
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
US Army: Geotagged Facebook posts put soldiers' lives at risk
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They're idiots. Facebook strips geotaggging, unless they reversed this policy some time ago.
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"Take the cheese to sickbay!"
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
US Army: Geotagged Facebook posts put soldiers' lives at risk
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Eager_Igraine posted:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17311702
Quote:
posted: Soldiers' lives are being put at risk by geotagged photos - marked with a location - on social media sites like Facebook, the US Army has warned.
It says Facebook's new Timeline feature , which creates a map of places geotagged by users, also poses a risk to soldiers and their families
Many smartphones automatically geotag photos with GPS co-ordinates.
In 2007 four US Army helicopters were destroyed in Iraq after geotagged photos were posted on the internet.
Get off that Facebook and soldier, soldier!
-----signature-----
I radiate more heat than light.
I know what you're trying to do but you're just sailing another failboat over the falls. - imaloon1
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DemonicXH
Title: Camelot Vault Staff
News Editor
Posts: 584
Registered: 2003-12-1 08:14:17
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
US Army: Geotagged Facebook posts put soldiers' lives at risk
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ZigmundZag posted:
They're idiots. Facebook strips geotaggging, unless they reversed this policy some time ago.
Not on status updates.
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Koneg
Title: Evil Genius
Posts: 894
Registered: 2001-12-4 15:31:28
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
US Army: Geotagged Facebook posts put soldiers' lives at risk
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DemonicXH posted:
ZigmundZag posted:
They're idiots. Facebook strips geotaggging, unless they reversed this policy some time ago.
Not on status updates.
It has to be tagged by the user... which brings us full circle to the "idiots" thing. 
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* First rule of a gun fight: Have a gun.
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"Any sufficiently advanced idiocy is
indistinguishable from trolling." -- Arthur C Clarke
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
US Army: Geotagged Facebook posts put soldiers' lives at risk
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Koneg posted:
DemonicXH posted:
ZigmundZag posted:
They're idiots. Facebook strips geotaggging, unless they reversed this policy some time ago.
Not on status updates.
It has to be tagged by the user... which brings us full circle to the "idiots" thing.
Hard to argue with the idiots point. The rest of the problem may be smart phone privacy settings and disabling automatic geotagging "features".
http://www.army.mil/article/75165/Geotagging_poses_security_risks/
Quote:
posted: Security risks for the military:
A deployed service member's situational awareness includes the world of social media. If a Soldier uploads a photo taken on his or her smartphone to Facebook, they could broadcast the exact location of their unit, said Steve Warren, deputy G2 for the Maneuver Center of Excellence, or MCoE.
"Today, in pretty much every single smartphone, there is built-in GPS," Warren said. "For every picture you take with that phone, it will automatically embed the latitude and longitude within the photograph."
Someone with the right software and the wrong motivation could download the photo and extract the coordinates from the metadata.
Warren cited a real-world example from 2007. When a new fleet of helicopters arrived with an aviation unit at a base in Iraq, some Soldiers took pictures on the flightline, he said. From the photos that were uploaded to the Internet, the enemy was able to determine the exact location of the helicopters inside the compound and conduct a mortar attack, destroying four of the AH-64 Apaches.
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I radiate more heat than light.
I know what you're trying to do but you're just sailing another failboat over the falls. - imaloon1
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ZigmundZag
Title: Grammar Nazi
Posts: 1,211
Registered: 2002-3-25 23:03:00
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
US Army: Geotagged Facebook posts put soldiers' lives at risk
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The idiots comment is more directed at the article than the soldiers. Yes, a soldier who decides to "check in" from Fallujah has compromised himself and potentially his entire unit and is certainly not the brightest bulb in the US Army. Also a soldier who posts pictures to Photobucket or Yfrog without making sure the geotags were disabled (I think photobucket strips them, too, but not all photo sites will) is dangerous, but that one is a little less obvious to people who aren't tech-savvy. But the article is worded as though the US Army blames Facebook for putting soldiers' lives at risks, which is wrong on a couple of different levels.
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"Take the cheese to sickbay!"
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
US Army: Geotagged Facebook posts put soldiers' lives at risk
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Definitely the soldiers' behavior rather than the social media, ZZ.
-----signature-----
I radiate more heat than light.
I know what you're trying to do but you're just sailing another failboat over the falls. - imaloon1
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Sansfear
Posts: 757
Registered: 2008-8-31 05:04:52
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
US Army: Geotagged Facebook posts put soldiers' lives at risk
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The geotagging feature defaults to 'on' at least it did on my phone.
One simple change would be for manufacturers to default it to off and make the user turn it on themselves.
Many people with smart phones are not tech savvy and wouldn't be aware of the geotagging feature. It is a training issue, if nothing else.
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Testerion
Posts: 549
Registered: 2001-12-28 03:07:47
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
US Army: Geotagged Facebook posts put soldiers' lives at risk
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Maybe US army should put more emphasis on teaching their soldiers not to be idiots.
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