There have long been concerns about personal information leaks while using WeChat. Now with media reports focusing on that issue, it falls into public spotlight again.
A college professor has warned on a Chinese TV program on Sunday that sending a photo that contains GPS information may expose user’s location information to the receiver, who, if there are bad intentions, may use it for scam.
When we take a photo on a phone with the GPS on the geographic location will be saved. If we send the original image, some of the information stored in the photo will be transmitted to the other party along with the photo, Professor Zhang from Jiangsu Ocean University was quoted by Jiangsu TV as saying.
Professor Zhang said that once the original images were obtained by criminals, they could locate users or conduct fraudulent activities based on the geographic location and other information contained in the images.
The report also provides ways to prevent the picture from containing sensitive personal information: users can choose to turn off the location information or not send the original photo.
WeChat’s Statement
In response to this, the Tencent WeChat team issued a statement on Sunday afternoon saying users don't have to worry, there have been such rumors as early as 2017 and solutions have long been available.
WeChat said that any photos taken by smart phones today contain Exif information, which can call GPS global positioning system data and record location, time and other information in the photos. Whether you send the original image by WeChat, SMS, email or other transmission tools, the accompanying information will be sent along with it.
However, WeChat said that photos sent in WeChat's circle of friends are automatically compressed by the system without location and other information.
If you want to be 100 percent safe, you can avoid sending the original image, or turn off the positioning. You can also use Photoshop to adjust the image before sending it.
The following is the original "About sending original photos, you need to know these things" released by WeChat in 2017:
We are concerned about the recent rumors on the Internet about the leaked privacy of the original image sent by WeChat. We explain this as follows:
Nowadays, photos taken by any smart phone contain Exif parameters, which can call GPS global positioning system data and record location, time and other information in the photos.
When the user sends the original picture to others, the accompanying information is also sent out. This is true whether you use WeChat, SMS, email, or other transmission tools. Strictly speaking, the so-called geographic information leakage has nothing to do with WeChat.
Some public accounts attributed it to WeChat, which was seriously misleading and caused panic to the majority of users.
In addition, the pictures sent by users in the circle of friends have been automatically compressed by the system. They are not the original pictures and have no location information. Some accounts claim to "show the full trace of the day through the picture of the circle of friends", which is completely false.
We hope that public accounts can discriminate information carefully to avoid exaggerating the facts and cause unnecessary harm to the public and businesses. We also remind users to pay attention to the protection of personal information. You can turn off privacy-related functions such as location services in the "settings" of smartphones.
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