Privacy is always an issue on the internet, and we all have to be mindful of what we post, but AI technologies are beginning to challenge what’s possible when it comes to uncovering details that are not explicitly shared, using seemingly innocent data. Which is why GeoSpy is definitely worth taking notice of.
GeoSpy Is Like the Deep Blue of GeoGuessr
GeoGuessr is a game where players try to guess where a Google Street View photo is from, just by what can be seen in the image. You need a sharp mind and heaps of knowledge to know that a photo was taken in a specific country, city, or street just based on the buildings, plants, and other subtle clues.
GeoSpy is to GeoGuessr players what IBM’s Deep Blue was to human Chess players. It can look at any image, and then determine where it was likely taken based on minute and often esoteric details in the image.
It’s Meant for Governments and Law Enforcement
As of this writing, GeoSpy is only available to law enforcement and enterprise customers who have a legitimate and legal use for the technology. For example, police may receive video or photos of a hostage from kidnappers, and GeoSpy could narrow down where in the world the photo was taken. GeoSpy even has military applications, where photos of enemy troops or vehicles can reveal their position at the time the image was taken using GeoSpy.
There’s also a trove of historical images that are part of cold cases or otherwise unsolved mysteries that an AI tool like GeoSpy could help solve. You don’t have to stretch your imagination too much to know why governments and other large organizations would love to have a tool like that can, as far as I can see, reliably tell you where a photo was taken because of how the grass looks, or the street layout.
But, the Public Had Access for a While
GeoSpy hasn’t been in the public eye much, but it came to my attention after 404 Media published a report (requires free signup) following its own investigation into this software. It makes for sobering reading, as the journalists could sign up for a publicly-available demo of GeoSpy and use it for purposes like stalking. GeoSpy has since shut down public access to the software, but 404 Media reports that some members of the public had been using the technology for less than savory uses up to that point.
The Threat of Doxxing Is Greater Than Ever Thanks to AI
I recommend reading 404’s entire article to get a good sense of the implications and where GeoSpy is heading in the future, but for me, the most important takeaway is that we are entering a truly wild period for privacy on the internet and the threat of doxxing.
Even before the more recent AI and machine learning boom, advanced algorithms were able to infer information about you based on circumstantial things. The purpose of this was to throw targeted advertising at you, but it was still a process of getting information you didn’t share from info you did share.
With big-brain AI models becoming capable of savant-like inferences, it means that practically anything you share online can reveal things about you. The worst part is there’s no way for you to truly anonymize, for example, a photo of you on holiday. A tool like this would already make it possible to figure out more or less where a public figure lives. or just a regular person like you or me.
While social media platforms automatically strip location metadata from any images you upload, I think we’ll all have to think twice before uploading a photo now. Ask yourself if you’re willing to let people know where a photo was taken, and if the answer to that question is “no,” it’s probably better to just leave it on your hard drive.
