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File Metadata Information - You could be putting yourself at risk!

FloofyNewfie said:
Only .jpg and .jpeg files will have their metadata information scrubbed automatically by the forum. Even then, it can take 20 minutes to a few hours. Any other image file type (.png, .gif, .tif, etc.) will permanently contain metadata if you do not remove the data yourself before uploading your image/video onto the forum. Ditto with ALL video files, they will not have their metadata information scrubbed.
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I was referring to this. GPS coordinates can be uploaded at the moment in certain cases, right?

Antics3309 said:
It'd be way more powerful to run this EXIF stripping process directly on the forum's filesystem rather than using any of XenForo's attachment functions. Or, as @pes mentioned, a plugin for XenForo itself.

It would take months of hard work to manually fix all files on this forum, but a tool operating directly on the file system? Between a few dozen minutes and a few hours, maybe a day at most. And it'd be more thorough and proper than anything moderation could do themselves. But only the server's operator, whoever is likely paying for it and managing the domain DNS itself - they're the only one capable of committing this.
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That's cool if it happens, but looking at omni's history I think this is what he meant by it'll only happen if done apart from the site: https://www.zoovilleforum.net/threads/pin-a-thread-to-this-forum-explaining.110143/
 
saintlover8 said:
That's cool if it happens, but looking at omni's history I think this is what he meant by it'll only happen if done apart from the site: https://www.zoovilleforum.net/threads/pin-a-thread-to-this-forum-explaining.110143/
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Then my idea holds better than a plugin or mod, as the piece of software I envision does not require permanent modification to the forum software. It's akin to running a python script - only requires installing Python if such is not already available.
 
Antics3309 said:
Then my idea holds better than a plugin or mod, as the piece of software I envision does not require permanent modification to the forum software. It's akin to running a python script - only requires installing Python if such is not already available.
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I do not know how the forum software is structured, but the files are probably in a database and may not be accessible easily in the filesystem.
 
Antics3309 said:
Then my idea holds better than a plugin or mod, as the piece of software I envision does not require permanent modification to the forum software. It's akin to running a python script - only requires installing Python if such is not already available.
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Efficiency wise, makes sense. It doesn't seem like the program will be used by the admins based on the thread I linked... I hope that's wrong though. Mods are active and can respond to PMs at least.
 
saintlover8 said:
I don't think he was talking about uploading content with gps coordinates and then messaging a mod to fix it. He was saying that because other people mistakenly upload files with GPS and the forum doesn't scrub all of that, then a program can be made to find images like that and pm'ed to pes for moderation / user safety.
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I really don’t want to burden the moderators with such extra work. It is a strange detour to let a program find the files and then the moderator should take action to scrub the file 🙄
If such a program could be made, then it should of course PM the user, who then takes action.
 
humananimal said:
I really don’t want to burden the moderators with such extra work. It is a strange detour to let a program find the files and then the moderator should take action to scrub the file 🙄
If such a program could be made, then it should of course PM the user, who then takes action.
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Not a bad idea but some users are really inactive or don't plan on returning.
 

Warning photo metadata

your picture can be used to track you every picture has "meta data" which includes the location of images and videos when they were taken do some research and scrub the meta data before you post good luck and stay safe :)
www.zoovilleforum.net www.zoovilleforum.net

Uploaded Pic / Vid metadata

Hi Guys Just wondering if the metadata gets scrubbed on upload, I know most forums do this automatically these days I have search but cannot really find an exact answer
www.zoovilleforum.net www.zoovilleforum.net

EXIF and metadata in photos.

I have read a suggestion to remove the all EXIF from the photos before uploading. Because EXIF contains information, not only about how the picture is taken. But the location of the photo is also in the metadata ! My suggestion : add a function to ZooVille that automatically removes all...
www.zoovilleforum.net www.zoovilleforum.net

FloofyNewfie said:
From what I understand it gets stripped from photos. However, it's not something that happens immediately. Basically a scan is performed on the servers every 15-20 minutes to strip the metadata from what I've been told.

It's supposed to strip it from videos as well, but, from what I've seen it doesn't do a very good job and it pretty much always skips .MOV files. I've seen .MOV files hang around for months with metadata intact.

Like the others have mentioned, it's best to just strip the metadata yourself before uploading content so that you'll have some peace of mind before uploading, instead of just hoping the forum will do the work for you. There are plenty of free software for both mobile and PC that'll strip the files of metadata.
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*Guy's entire life gets ruined* - whelp, the warning waaaaas posted. Welcome message for new users? No. Upload form? No. Sticky at least?!? No. Just, you know, somewhere. Wait, the site found the GPS in the image and did what instead of remove it?!?
 
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omniscientfluffer said:
*Guy's entire life gets ruined* - whelp, the warning waaaaas posted. Welcome message for new users? No. Upload form? No. Sticky at least?!? No. Just, you know, somewhere. Wait, the site found the GPS in the image and did what instead of remove it?!?
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While I get what you're going for, there's only so much a team of unpaid volunteers can really do.

Plus, people don't read shit anyway. Even if you flashed a big warning in front of them that took up the entire screen and they couldn't click accept for 30 seconds, they still wouldn't read it.
 
iwanttobeabottom said:
While I get what you're going for, there's only so much a team of unpaid volunteers can really do.

Plus, people don't read shit anyway. Even if you flashed a big warning in front of them that took up the entire screen and they couldn't click accept for 30 seconds, they still wouldn't read it.
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I have several times written a PM to members because their Avatar or other uploaded photos / videos contained metadata showing cameratype, settings and so on. And GPS, so the exact filming location was visible.
 
humananimal said:
I have several times written a PM to members because their Avatar or other uploaded photos / videos contained metadata showing cameratype, settings and so on. And GPS, so the exact filming location was visible.
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Same.
Usually when you decide to download an image on a phone. Then I look at the gallery. It says today I was in some obscure town in Illinois... wtf??
Then you see the downloaded image is among them.
Ugh. Lets see where I got that image from, send a report or DM asap.
 
iwanttobeabottom said:
Missing the forest for the trees.
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You think it is a waste of time. Perhaps, but it feels good to me.
Most of them replied with a thank. And that they didn’t know they could be revealed.
I am also amazed on how often people uses no form of password on their phone, and also wear it fully visible for any pickpockets.
 
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humananimal said:
You think it is a waste of time. Perhaps, but it feels good to me.
Most of them replied with a thank. And that they didn’t know they could be revealed.
I am also amazed on how often people uses no form of password on their phone, and also wear it fully visible for any pickpockets.
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iwanttobeabottom said:
I had to message someone once because their video had a geolocation embedded in it that showed exactly where they recorded it. Thankfully I'm not a bad actor and just told them to remove it for their own safety, as well as to disable their location embedding.

Truth be told, geotagging should always remain off in your camera. GPS should stay off too, unless actively in use at that point in time. When it's done being used, turn it off.

Quadruple check everything you want to post before you post it. Wait some time in between checking, even going do far as to sleep on it a few times. Always try to look with a different set of eyes and scrutinize the shit out of every detail of your pictures and videos.

People are insanely crafty and piece together a little from here and a little from there to figure out more than might be expected.

Doubt nothing and distrust everyone.
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iwanttobeabottom said:
The average person is also exceedingly dumb and of below-average intelligence.


And a lot of people DON'T use it, for any number of reasons. Don't think to, don't want to, don't know how, don't want to learn how, etc.

Why don't you be helpful to them and use it and copy and paste the links here to provide it for those that can't/won't find it for themselves?
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Do I think it's a waste of time?
 
If someone was to make a bot for this, what other things should be scanned for along with metadata? I assume there are other moderation worthy things a program can scan for.
 
omniscientfluffer said:
If someone was to make a bot for this, what other things should be scanned for along with metadata? I assume there are other moderation worthy things a program can scan for.
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telegram, session, email, phone numbers... stuff
pedo things like yng, young, ageplay, depraved perv...
 
iwanttobeabottom said:
It means missing the big picture for the smaller details. I didn't know it until about a year ago and had to look it up. Knowing now what it means, it's actually a pretty good expression to me.
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Oh, almost the same in my language.
It will translate to “Couldn’t see the forest for all those trees”
 
Antics3309 said:
Then my idea holds better than a plugin or mod, as the piece of software I envision does not require permanent modification to the forum software. It's akin to running a python script - only requires installing Python if such is not already available.
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pes said:
I do not know how the forum software is structured, but the files are probably in a database and may not be accessible easily in the filesystem.
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Could be possible. Doubt using something like image magick's php extension would do that to videos. The normal structure is all files are in a media folder. They get changed to random file names depending on the attachment, etc.
Certain mods as mentioned only do images, and they may do more but that requires the forum to be upgraded.

And as mentioned as this is the 20th post reported of Meta data in videos.
DISABLE LOCATION SETTINGS FOR YOUR CAMERA IN YOUR PHONE
pes said:
telegram, session, email, phone numbers... stuff
pedo things like yng, young, ageplay, depraved perv...
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I should see about getting Elastic search to just access my server that's running it so it can allow for better searching. Nothing special needs to be done since I already did that. Just needs an IP and it does the rest.
omniscientfluffer said:
*Guy's entire life gets ruined* - whelp, the warning waaaaas posted. Welcome message for new users? No. Upload form? No. Sticky at least?!? No. Just, you know, somewhere. Wait, the site found the GPS in the image and did what instead of remove it?!?
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I think I do have that in the rules as well. I'll make sure its at least a lot more visible.
 
dogluver101 said:
Could be possible. Doubt using something like image magick's php extension would do that to videos. The normal structure is all files are in a media folder. They get changed to random file names depending on the attachment, etc.
Certain mods as mentioned only do images, and they may do more but that requires the forum to be upgraded.

And as mentioned as this is the 20th post reported of Meta data in videos.
DISABLE LOCATION SETTINGS FOR YOUR CAMERA IN YOUR PHONE

I should see about getting Elastic search to just access my server that's running it so it can allow for better searching. Nothing special needs to be done since I already did that. Just needs an IP and it does the rest.

I think I do have that in the rules as well. I'll make sure its at least a lot more visible.
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When you say could be possible, are you saying running a custom script on the media folder is on the table? Does it have to use PHP, because other languages would get better performance? Python being the most common.

Give the green light and someone might just make it.

One issue is if it's running on the server it'll be inconvenient to PM pez. I can API call Twilio to send alerts to his cell phone, that's actually easier than PMs at that point.

@Antics3309 I found out how to scan all media without having to crawl the forum. Hope that helps.

Are the mods able to delete a photo by being given the attachment ID / a working URL to download it? It's easier to not have to supply the thread link.
 
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