Many people upload pictures from their cell phone,  but what they don't know is that if their cell phone may have a GPS on it which could be traced to the spot where they took the pictures whether it one is at the mall, school or home.

The tracing first has to do with a format called Exchangeable image file format (Exif) which is a format for storing metadata in image files. When the picture is taken the coordinates are placed with the picture so when a person uploads the picture, the picture can be traced to the exact spot where it was took from.

Another factor is geotagging, a program that is used for people to check news and picture. Basically, the people some times use the geotagging to trace pictures to a person’s location. It also has other unintended uses for instances getting a famous celebrities address or for law enforcement to get a location of a criminal.

Though there is a way to protect yourself before uploading a picture you can run it through a program that removes the GPS location, for example you can use Metadata removal tool to protect yourself and your privacy. Also most phones give an option to turn off gps so as not to be traced.