Natalia Mitigates The Apocalypse

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What a random truck stop photo can teach you about safety
nataliaantonova.substack.com

What a random truck stop photo can teach you about safety

This is a fun and slightly scary experiment

Natalia Antonova 🇺🇸🇺🇦
Jan 5
7
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What a random truck stop photo can teach you about safety
nataliaantonova.substack.com

The day after Christmas, I was on the road. I posted the following picture on my Twitter:

Twitter avatar for @NataliaAntonovaNatalia Antonova ❤️‍🔥 @NataliaAntonova
Where was this photo taken?
Natalia in random parking lot

December 26th 2021

2 Retweets94 Likes

The location was decidedly unglamorous, and, as you’ll note if you look in the original photo, I had cropped the image in a certain way:

I wanted to see how many people would immediately recognize what was going on on top of the shack above me, and how many would have trouble.

I had also run the cropped image through Google Lens several times, and was fairly confident that it wouldn’t recognize this version (although, as we’ve seen before, results may differ for different users). I also showed the image to some friends, who didn’t immediately recognize the shed behind me.

Predictably, someone found my exact location within minutes (yes, MINUTES, if you are just joining me) of me posting the original tweet:

Twitter avatar for @MandHFLucy Kwiatek @MandHF
@NataliaAntonova Off 95 near Dunn, NC

December 26th 2021

7 Likes

Congratulations to Lucy! Just two minutes in, she had zeroed in on me.

Lucy’s method involved instant recognition. She immediately saw that in spite of his cut off nose, Snoopy was on top of the shack!

Afterward, all she had to do was google “Snoopy shed” (she corrected her original tweet on the method she used). The truck stop near Dunn is a popular location for taking photos, and there’s a decent diner and even a gift shop nearby. Voila:

Twitter avatar for @MandHFLucy Kwiatek @MandHF
@NataliaAntonova I googled "Snoopy shack" and found a photo posted to Deviantart of a very similar-looking building. I went to the location in the caption on Google Maps, and noticed that there was a building near the shack that was a match for the one in the background on the left.

December 26th 2021

27 Likes

At that point, all Lucy needed was to match the building in the background to what was happening in the foreground, just as wssnr did here:

Twitter avatar for @wssnrwssnr @wssnr
@NataliaAntonova
Image

December 26th 2021

4 Likes

The circled building above is the shed, in front of which I am standing. Behind me is the diner + gift shop.

HOWEVER, we must understand that human beings process visual information differently. For example, Melissa was another person who quickly saw Snoopy in the cropped image:

Twitter avatar for @MelissaJPeltierMelissa Jo Peltier @MelissaJPeltier
@NataliaAntonova That looks like Snoopy’s doghouse!

December 26th 2021

4 Likes

However, ClawShrimp did not:

Twitter avatar for @claw_shrimpClawShrimp @claw_shrimp
@NataliaAntonova Nothing found for me on Lens. I would never have recognized that as Snoopy, either.

December 26th 2021

1 Like

It’s very important for us to discuss how we process images. Why? Because it impacts our personal safety.

Imagine if I had cropped the image while seeing it through ClawShrimp’s eyes. I may have thought to myself, “This is safety to post publicly, no one will find this location.”

If you’ve ever been stalked, or know someone who has, you know exactly where I’m going with this. Cropping images can give you a false sense of security about what you post publicly online.

This is especially important for people in sensitive jobs and those of us who’d like to enjoy at least a minimal degree of anonymity online. So many of us think we can’t be tracked down — when in fact, all it takes is one person able to zero in on a crucial detail.

This is why I want to encourage you to share my post with anyone who may benefit from it.

No complicated methods were involved here. It was literally just going from seeing Snoopy to using Google. Plenty of other people can do it, even if you feel that you cannot.

Getting on the road in the middle of a raging pandemic was a bit scary for me, but life made it necessary. I also really wanted to do a geolocation challenge in my home state, North Carolina. I spent some of my happiest years there, and being back always makes me think about dad, and how we used to take road trips when he was younger. An immigrant, he loved stopping by roadside diners, learning the history of obscure places, and listening to people talk over big plates of cheesy grits. It was in seemingly random moments like these that I saw his face light up with happiness, as he felt at home in his new country.

I have many more places connected to dad that I’d like to explore, and with your support, we can do it together.

Stay with me!

If you learned something new, please take out a paid subscription! Just $5 a month helps keep the gas tank full! ❤️

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