The Selfie has been with us since the dawn of the front facing cell phone camera. Given that those cameras only seem to be getting better and more advanced, it looks like selfies are here to stay. Whether you love them or hate them, chances are, you have probably taken one and will continue to take them whether alone or with friends in the ever popular “groupie” pose.

Have you ever thought to yourself, is my selfie a security risk?

Probably not, but they pay us security folks to think about stuff like this and get you to think about it also. The answer to the question is “heck yes”. Your seemingly innocuous selfie could be providing all kinds information to others that you may not even know about.

Here are a some selfie-related risks that you might not have thought about and what to do about them:

Your Selfie May Contain a Geotag With Your Location in It

When you take that selfie, you might not realize it but you may be recording more than just a picture of yourself. If you have a GPS-enabled smartphone (which pretty much every smartphone in the last few years has as a standard feature) then your phone is probably also recording the location of the picture.

This location information, also known as a geotag, gets recorded in the EXIF metadata of the image file. Metadata is information that gets recorded when a picture is taken, it usually includes things such as the time, date, image compression type, and (if the location services feature of the phone allows it) the GPS coordinates of where the picture was taken.

This metadata is not visible in the picture itself but it can be seen using an EXIF metadata reader app such as Koredoko's EXIF and GPS Viewer

Why are geotags a security risk? Mainly because they are giving up your actual location. For more reasons check out our article: Why Stalkers Love Your Geotags

You can prevent your smartphone from ever recording this information in the first place so that it doesn’t end up as a risk. Read How to Turn Off Geotagging on Your Phone for details on how to accomplish this.

If you’ve already taken pictures and want to remove geotag information from them before you post them online, check out How to Remove Geotags From Your Pictures for instructions.

Your Selfie May Indicate Where You Are NOT located

So, you’ve learned about geotags and why giving up your location might be a risk, but another thing that criminals can infer from your selfie is not only where you are, but also where you’re not. If you post a selfie to Facebook, Instagram, or somewhere else then you are telling potential thieves and other bad guys where you ARE NOT. That selfie you just made in the Bahamas, guess what? It just told the bad guys that they have approximately 12 hours to rob your house since you’re busy sipping on Mai Thais on the beach.

Wait and post those vacation selfies when you’re safely at home. Learn more about these types of risks in 5 Reasons Why Sharing Your Location is a Bad Idea.

Friends in Your Group Selfie (Groupie) May Not Want Their Location Revealed

When you take a selfie where other people are in the shot, you might also be compromising their location information and general personal safety. Everything mentioned above applies to everyone in your selfie, even more so if you tag them in your picture.

Other Things in Your Picture May Be Useful To Criminals

Is there an item of value in your picture? Is that a priceless Tiffany lamp on the table next to you? How about that Rolex on your wrist. If you geotagged these pictures, thieves now have a literal treasure map of where to find these valuables.

Remove geotags from your pictures and don’t show anything off that you don’t want stolen. You never know who might see these selfies. .