Can an iPhone picture or video be traced back to the iPhone?

DuckSoup

macrumors 6502a

Original poster

Mar 7, 2008

589

5

Upstate Central NY

• Apr 30, 2010

• #1

Say I am witnessing a crime and have an opportunity to take photos or a video of it. Then lets say I want to submit them to authorities as evidence but do so anonymously. If I get the "original" pictures to the authorities either by sending from an anonymous email address, or on a flash drive or CD etc, can the information recorded with the file be traced back to my iPhone, thus identifying me?

Basically, does the EXIF information recorded with the file include info that IDs the exact iPhone?

Mike

 

C

CocoaPuffs

macrumors 68020

Aug 23, 2008

2,005

3

• Apr 30, 2010

• #2

It is on the songs you download, so I won't be surprise the same for this case.

 

I

iRance

macrumors regular

Oct 3, 2009

175

0

• Apr 30, 2010

• #3

CocoaPuffs said:

It is THE SAME on the songs you download, so I won't be surprise the same for this case.

Click to expand...

Fixed for you.

 

A

ajones46

macrumors 6502

Feb 9, 2009

376

1

Monroe, Michigan

• Apr 30, 2010

• #4

Interesting scenario... I wonder if the iPhones geotagging gets saved somehow if you were to put it on a flash drive. I'd like the answer to this question also.

 

G

grantsdale

macrumors 6502a

May 11, 2008

551

0

• Apr 30, 2010

• #5

If you're using a PC, irfanview will remove exif data losslessly.

 

andybno1

Suspended

Nov 6, 2007

3,643

38

Liverpool, UK

• Apr 30, 2010

• #6

ajones46 said:

Interesting scenario... I wonder if the iPhones geotagging gets saved somehow if you were to put it on a flash drive. I'd like the answer to this question also.

Click to expand...

yes it does get saved, I have many a time moved images off my iPhone on to a usb drive and later imported into iphoto on my macbook and it knows where the photo was taken in places

 

John T

macrumors 68020

Mar 18, 2006

2,114

6

UK.

• May 1, 2010

• #7

DuckSoup said:

can the information recorded with the file be traced back to my iPhone, thus identifying me?

Basically, does the EXIF information recorded with the file include info that IDs the exact iPhone?

Click to expand...

No! The EXIF Data only records that the photo was taken on an iPhone. If geotagging is enabled when the photo is taken, the location is also recorded.

 

D

Dead Panda

macrumors member

Apr 14, 2010

68

0

• May 1, 2010

• #8

CocoaPuffs said:

It is on the songs you download, so I won't be surprise the same for this case.

Click to expand...

Really? The songs you download include your device ID? Weird. I wonder how they do that even when you don't download them on the iPhone.

 

B

bripab007

macrumors 6502a

Oct 12, 2009

529

26

• May 1, 2010

• #9

So, to actually answer the guy's question: no, there shouldn't be any data that could be traced back to your phone, cerrainly not your name or email address. Geotagging, yes, but that wouldnt rrally help anyone find you or the phone.