Have you ever wondered about the kitties that live in the houses around yours? Now you can catch a glimpse of them online.
Associate professor of art at Florida State University, Owen Mundy, realized that instagram was creating a map with every picture he was sharing with the world, and he thought he would show how this worked in the least creepy way possible: with cat photos. The result is a site he named I Know Where Your Cat Lives, and it shows the geolocation of one million photos tagged with the word “cat” that were found on Flickr, Twitpic, Instagram, and other public image hosting sites. A supercomputer at Florida State University helped crunch the data, and the result is a Google Maps representation of the cat photos they found — minus the usernames from the accounts that originally uploaded them.
The result lets you see kitty photos that were taken near your home — or near any other address you can think of.
How do they know where your cat lives? Well, they don’t actually know where she lives. They know where the photo was taken, if the camera or smartphone that took the photo included it in the EXIF data stored with the photo. Photos can have lots of handy information stored in the EXIF data with the image itself, including things like the F-stop and ISO speed used to take the image, as well as geotagging information.
What can you do if you’re creeped out by finding out there is image data inside photos you take?
If you want to remove geotags from images that are downloaded to your computer, Windows users can delete the data through the Properties window for the image file, while there are programs to help Mac users. Lifehacker has handy instructions on how to remove personal information from photographs.
Phone users can check their respective app stores to be able to see and selectively delete geolocation data in photos that are on the device, and of course, you can turn of the recording of the data to begin with in your phone’s preferences. Similarly, cameras that include the feature allow you to turn it off, if you choose.
In the meantime, the Random Cat button on the site is nearly as addictive as kibble. A chance to view random cats all around the internet and learn a little bit about the data stored with your photos helps us all get something useful — or at least fun — out of this project.
Wow. That site kind of freaked me out. Fortunately, my human has disabled the Geo function on her camera and iPhone photos so we are still under the radar. I looked for myself and – I wasn’t there! Whew.
Wow ! It’s fun and freaky at the same time ! Purrs
That kind of thing used to worry me but I realized if someone wanted to know where I lived it would be easy to find out today. On the other hand, you probably don’t wan to geotag anything of value.
That’s amazing in a freaky way. Is there a way to search for a specific area? We’d like to know if we are on the site.
The Florida Furkids
Actually, we DO think that is a bit creepy. We like our privacy…
I think my camera is too old for a GEO function, but I will test this out later. It is creepy to think anyone would care where anyone else’s cats live.
We didn’t know that our location could be tracked by our photos. Kinda scary in a way. But we’ll check out the site and see what kitties live by us.
Wow! That’s both interesting and scary at the same time
Thanks for showing us that site. We’ve got to ponder that geotagging stuff.
I think is so cool! I had fun looking at the different kitties nearby and in other countries.
wowowowow what an interesting post. we had no idea..
hugs madi your bfff
That is kind of freaky. I am glad they don’t give addresses. But a very interesting project.
We don’t need to look at the neighbor cats online because we can see and talk to them from our window. We aren’t too sure about that website. It makes us rather uncomfortable.
Isn’t it funny how we all love having a snoop but are less comfy when it is us being snooped upon! I was sure I’d turned it off on my new camera but just remembered mobile software has updated recently so need to check that. Thanks for the reminder and nosey parker website that I need to share with my friends….!
No Geo functions are on in our cameras or on our iPad. But regardless of whether we like it or not we’re all being tracked. Every single thing we do. It’s a myth, IMO, the one about privacy. There isn’t any anymore. But, I don’t go out of my way to make it easy. This was a very interesting idea!
We have so many dang cats…it’s a whole neighborhood’s worth in ONE HOUSE.
that is neat but we are glad our mom has geotags off on the flashy box 🙂 we did check the map in our area to be sure there weren’t any pictures of us tho, mol!
Pip, Smidgen, Minnie, Hollie
Oy my COD!!! You mean my neighbors might be watching me??? The neighbors with DOGS???
; ) …maybe we ought to watch back!
So first of all, I came to this post because your more recent post talked about creeping folks out and I had to find out what was so creepy.
Ahem.
I think it’s very cool. I also think anyone who uses a smart phone or the interwebs should know that your information is all over the place, unless you actively try not to let it out, or stay out of the web-o-sphere.
Personally, I know this, and simply adjust accordingly.
Thanks for sharing.
–Wags (and purrs) from Life with Dogs and Cats
That map ain’t very good cos they only have 1 cat from my town and it ain’t me! TW says I should be happy that no one’s tracking us but the gov, google, etc etc etc.