I tried it with an iphone photo sent to me, uploaded it, got the exif with my browser, went and found a website that converts GPS coordinates (- for west and south) into an address. From that, you can look up that address on mapquest or one of those sites.
There is a way to disable that feature but it wasn't a matter of just turning it on and off at will. It is one of those things that could be used for good or evil, but I can't help wondering why they would design so that additional information would be embeeded in a photo amd consider the possible dangers of revealing too much about your location to strangers on the web without even being aware of it.
It had to have been deliberate to go that far. Many photos reveal enough already but the exif is usually benign with camera settings, model and software. There is a way to save that will strip off the exif, or was, but those phone photos are not usually manipulated further in a graphics editor.
Well the high tech geek basically found her address where the picture was taken, found out it was a family home, posted the address and phone number and then did a websearch to find all all the people who lived at the home, including a college aged young female.
He suggested that people might want to call the young lady and ask her out telling her that they have seen her up close and personal.
High technology that can do good for smart people with good intentions can really destroy dumb people.
I think that the high tech geek who presented all the details probably disclosed a little too much, but he was making a point and he really drove the point home.
Another more interesting example was someone who stole an I-phone from a geek on an airplane. He was able to trace its location and the recent calls from it. He found the address and who lived at the address. Then he did a back trace on the phone calls and recognized that some of them were family to one of the people living at the location where his I-phone now resided. He found out that they were probably illegal aliens. He called the relatives up and told them that they could call their relative and if he shipped the phone back nothing further would be done. If they didn't he knew where the thief lived and he knew where their family lived and he would make their life hell by calling various immigration agents and filing charges with the police and giving the police all the addresses, names and phone numbers. He gave the relatives a few days to talk sense into the thief. He then called the thief on the stolen phone and basically gave him an ultimatum to return the phone or else.
The phone was eventually sent to the guy by the their.
If you are smart you got to love technology. If you are dumb, well that is another story.
No doubt. But this, honestly, is a feature. I have a Nikon SLR. To get it to record GPS, I have to buy an attachment. There are many other configurations and software that tag and read photos using GPS.
The purpose for photography is to be able to return to the spot as well as describe the photo by exact location.
Since phones have both GPS and a camera, it would seem natural to combine them. I'm only surprised they don't turn it off so they can charge extra to turn it on.