Browser fingerprinting is well-known: since a client gives many HTTP attributes/Javascript attributes during a website visit, the probability that two users have the same exact values for all this parameters is very low, and a user can sometimes be easily identified as unique (example: amiunique.org).
In a same fashion, is there a risk (for one’s privacy) that if someone shares a single photo somewhere on the web, then we can find all photos shared by the same person on internet?
Indeed, photos metadata (EXIF) are sometimes present on photos that people upload to their website (people sometimes don’t remove them), containing:
- name of the device (ok, many people in the world have the same device)
- maybe firmware version (then the number of people having the exact same version is lower) or OS version?
- sometimes geolocation
- other unique IDs?
Then won’t using a service like images.google.com (or a similar tool which offer metadata advanced search) allow anyone to find all photos uploaded by the same user?
More precisely: given a set of metadata coming from a photo, can people easily search all photos on internet made by the same device (thus creating a privacy risk)? Or do major image search engines prevent this to happen (by rejecting metadata search)?
Example for a photo:
---- File ---- FileName : ... Directory : ... FileSize : ... FileModifyDate : ... FilePermissions : ... FileType : JPEG MIMEType : image/jpeg ExifByteOrder : Little-endian (Intel, II) ImageWidth : ... ImageHeight : ... EncodingProcess : Baseline DCT, Huffman coding BitsPerSample : 8 ColorComponents : 3 YCbCrSubSampling : YCbCr4:2:0 (2 2) ---- EXIF ---- ImageWidth : ... ImageHeight : ... Make : ... Model : ... Orientation : Rotate 180 XResolution : 72 YResolution : 72 ResolutionUnit : inches Software : Ai0j1i567fs ModifyDate : ... YCbCrPositioning : Centered ExposureTime : ... FNumber : ... ExposureProgram : Program AE ISO : ... ExifVersion : 0220 DateTimeOriginal : ... CreateDate : ... ComponentsConfiguration : Y, Cb, Cr, - ShutterSpeedValue : 1/132 ApertureValue : ... BrightnessValue : ... ExposureCompensation : 0 MaxApertureValue : ... MeteringMode : Center-weighted average LightSource : Unknown Flash : Fired FocalLength : ... UserComment : ... FlashpixVersion : 0100 ColorSpace : sRGB ExifImageWidth : ... ExifImageHeight : ... InteropIndex : R98 - DCF basic file (sRGB) InteropVersion : 0100 SensingMethod : One-chip color area SceneType : Directly photographed ExposureMode : Auto WhiteBalance : Auto FocalLengthIn35mmFormat : 31 mm SceneCaptureType : Standard ImageUniqueID : H07RA02XP GPSVersionID : 2.2.0.0 ImageWidth : 512 ImageHeight : 288 Compression : JPEG (old-style) Orientation : Rotate 180 XResolution : 72 YResolution : 72 ResolutionUnit : inches ThumbnailOffset : ... ThumbnailLength : ... ---- MakerNotes ---- MakerNoteVersion : 0100 