2w ago

The Powerful AI Tool That Cops (or Stalkers) Can Use to Geolocate Photos in Seconds

www.404media.co The Powerful AI Tool That Cops (or Stalkers) Can Use to Geolocate Photos in Seconds

For months members of the public have been using GeoSpy, a tool trained on millions of images that can find the location a photo was taken based on soil, architecture, and more. It's GeoGuesser at scale.

And I just assumed they called Rainbolt

Geospatial @mander.xyz

fossilesque @mander.xyz

2w ago

The Powerful AI Tool That Cops (or Stalkers) Can Use to Geolocate Photos in Seconds

www.404media.co /the-powerful-ai-tool-that-cops-or-stalkers-can-use-to-geolocate-photos-in-seconds/

3 0

Technology @lemmy.world

misk @sopuli.xyz

2w ago

The Powerful AI Tool That Cops (or Stalkers) Can Use to Geolocate Photos in Seconds

www.404media.co /the-powerful-ai-tool-that-cops-or-stalkers-can-use-to-geolocate-photos-in-seconds/

120 7

27 comments

It was free but mostly used by stalkers. It was very accurate. Now it's closed to the public because it's very profitable, and only the police are using it. Congrats to the developers! You made it. You sold your neighbors' safety to the oligarchs and their goons and now you can retire on a yacht, fanning yourself with money while the world burns.
- Seriously. Fuck all the tech and programmer guys helping to accelerate our doom and subjugation.
  
  Which excludes FOSS maintainers. Who should be well funded to protect our tech stacks from neglect.
  Whatever you are scared of.
  I'm scared of this more
  
  the programmers should at least use licenses that prevent legal use by the police and government agencies.
- Maybe this is why they want to expand the limitations for work visas. Bring people in who tend not to ask questions… Not at first, anyway. It takes a while to get the hang of how this American corporate greed thing works.

Geoguessr players: Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power
- What if the Geoguesser players are the AI?

Remembering how good, kind and private life was in 1984

The Powerful AI Tool That Cops (or Other Stalkers) Can Use to Geolocate Photos in Seconds
FIFY

I wasn't impressed. Apart from the they provide for the demo, it found none of my photos.
Perhaps it gets better next time you repost?

The article is clipped. Is there a non-paywalled version
- There are several other sources about it if you don't want (like me) a free subscription-
  https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2025/01/ai-that-finds-your-photos-technology.html
  https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/01/20/2132207/the-powerful-ai-tool-that-cops-or-stalkers-can-use-to-geolocate-photos-in-seconds
  https://www.gadgetreview.com/ai-tool-can-pinpoint-photo-locations-in-seconds
  https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20250121-geospy/
  Even the app itself https://geospy.ai/
  
  Thanks, bro! I tried 12ft but it didn't work

So, take pictures in monochrome or apply some kind of filters is what you're saying?
- Use generative AI to replace the background of all photos. I'm sure someone will come up with an app that does this automatically one day
  
  We're getting closer and closer to a scanner darkly.
  
  There are filters that autonatically blur background.
- Use unidentifiable backgrounds or remove them in post. I'd suggest small patches of sand, dirt or grass, walls, etc. Avoid anything that can be found on a map like mountains (and other large scale topography), buildings, power lines, etc.

I played with this a couple times. Once it located a nondescript stream in the UP of Michigan to within 200 miles. It knew the picture was taken in the UP. The second was a ferry dock in a foreign country (English speaking). It found a sign and that misdirected it to the other side of the country.

This has always been possible with anything anyone has ever posted publicly before social media. I'm glad sheeple are waking up.
- https://xkcd.com/1013

27 comments