5 On Your Side warns how photos you share could put your privacy at risk

Many of us regularly share photos with our family and friends online. Did you know you are probably sharing more than just the pictures?

Posted 9:37 p.m. Jul 9, 2019 — Updated 2:44 p.m. Jul 10, 2019

Monica Laliberte

, WRAL consumer editor

Many of us regularly share photos with our family and friends online.

Did you know you are probably sharing more than just the pictures? Pictures show everything from how a picture was taken, including the time, date and place and the exact GPS coordinates where the picture was taken.

Consumer Reports Tech Editor Thomas Germain says "when you take a photo with a digital camera or a phone, details about things like when, where, and how the images are created are captured and stored automatically in the file in what's called Exif data, which is short for Exchangeable Image File Format. And that information travels with the photo wherever you send it, whether you're posting it online or sharing it with a friend in a text."

Exif data can be very useful, however. When you store photos through Google or iCloud, it is what lets you search them by date and location.

Both services do allow you remove location data from individual photos.

When you share pictures using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or WhatsApp, the Exif data won't be available to the people who see them, and is not used for advertising purposes.

However, some companies such as Facebook and Twitter say they do use the data for analytics and other business purposes.

And the data does travel with photos you text or email, so keep that in mind when you're sharing.

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