re: #5 otoc

Which is why I’ve learned to include a link here at LGF, where we all look at variables instead of simply accepting. I hear you.

Here’s another one from Instagram…

Personally, the more I look, I think if Instagram says they access GPS (or don’t record the info) and this nitwit stopped his Instagram posting after he got outed there’s a good chance Occam’s razor applies here.

Here’s another link to Business Insider
A Russian Soldier’s Instagram Posts May Be The Clearest Indication Of Moscow’s Involvement In East Ukraine

Seems like RWC might have nailed it…
“So busted. Oh sooo busted.”

Of course there’s an element of chance that the data was spoofed, but why spoof data that says Russians were inside Ukraine? If he was in uniform that would be quite an offense in the Russian Army considering what their stated position has been. OTOH, youth and stupidity can be a revealing thing.

So I couldn’t find more online digging into whether Instagram was willing to use coarse locations, but I figured I would at least see what information Android embeds into photos if geotagging is turned on - after all, if it can only write latitude and longitude if the GPS is on, then that would be pretty clear. (And yes, I’m testing Android here because that’s what I have, but I doubt iOS is substantially different here?)

Forgive me for not posting proof, since I’m sitting at home playing with this stuff and the cell tower location is pretty accurate around here (coverage is good enough) but despite not having the GPS on, Google was able to tag my photo with coordinates using the cell phone tower information. It’s pretty clear to me that Google can geotag photos without requiring the GPS turned on (I keep mine off all the time); the question then becomes is Instagram using the same type of functionality.

Google’s changed the way permissions are listed on the Play store so I can’t see which level of permissions the Instagram app asks for (if it’s just fine location or coarse and fine).