Can You Really Chase Someone Through Their Reflection in Their Eyeballs?
Recently, a stalker found and attacked a Japanese pop star, partly using the reflection in her eyes to figure out which train station she was using . (He then waited for her at the train station and followed her home.) It got us thinking: How easy is it to get clues about someone’s whereabouts from their selfies?
Before we dive into the reflection of the eyeballs, it’s important to note that phones and cameras store additional information in the photo file, including which camera was used to take the photo, whether the flash fired, and (depending on your phone’s settings) GPS. the place where the photo was taken . Some social media platforms may delete location data, but if you’re concerned about privacy, you can check your settings to make sure you’re not giving this information too easily.
To test the eyeball reflection strategy, Lifehacker colleague Nick Douglas and I looked at each other’s selfies. Each of us chose a few shots taken outdoors or in a public place and gazed into each other’s eyes in digital format. It was creepy.
The first thing we learned is that depending on the lighting and the resolution of the photo, this is not an easy task. Nick summarized this experience pretty well:
1. Zooming in on your eyes and looking for clues was frustrating, which will be good to remember the next time I worry about being a psychopath. I don’t see a damn thing.
But there are a few clues. In one of Nick’s photographs, I thought I saw a reflection of a tree. However, there were trees behind him in the photo as well, so “he is in the forest” was not a groundbreaking discovery.
With sharper photographs and a little luck, I was able to see how reflections can give the viewer a clue to where a person is or what context they were taking a photo in. In one photo where Nick was wearing mirrored sunglasses (too easily, I know), I could tell that he was taking the picture himself with his hand raised and that he was standing on a not too busy sidewalk.
In addition to contextual clues about a person’s environment, it seems possible to obtain other information from the reflections of the eyes. If the photograph was taken by another person, examination of high-resolution photographs shows that people can be identified by reflections in the eyeballs . You can also sometimes choose the shape of the light sources – be it a window, or a single lamp on the ceiling, or a series of them, like in a store.
So, is it worth worrying about how much information you reveal in a selfie? Probably not too much … but maybe quite a bit.