Yes, you CAN be tracked down to a random motel parking lot

But by studying geolocation methods, you can also make better choices online!

I posted this photo on my Twitter, knowing that figuring out my location in this one would appear very hard for some people:

Natalia Antonova 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @NataliaAntonova

Hello, would you like to play a game? Where was this picture taken?

At first glance, there’s really not much going on here, right? A needle in a haystack situation, right?

Hahahaha. Not really. It took a little over an hour for the first person to correctly and precisely locate me and Pikachu:

PG @Pgreer3

@NataliaAntonova You are in the parking lot of the Motel 6 Newport News, VA Fort Eustis on Warwick Blvd. The road behind you is Merry Oaks Dr, and the building is a 7-11. It is early morning (around 8am) and you are facing south by south east.

As always, I sincerely appreciate the breakdown of a person’s methods in geolocating me, and I think this is the best, most succinct one:

Motang @ChiefBowser

@NataliaAntonova There’s a sign in the corner, Ameri..... Park. Knowing that you’re in the Hampton Roads area, I first googled Va Bc American Park, nothing. Norfolk American Park, nada. Chesapeake, nope. Newport News American Park, bingo-sort of. “Americana Park East”. Google Street View. Hello.

It’s very important to note that Chief was not looking at my photo in isolation. NO GEOLOCATION EXPERT LOOKS AT A PHOTO IN ISOLATION IF THEY CAN HELP IT. And neither — hello, hi! — do potential stalkers.

Here is the turn-off into that very same parking lot, helpfully provided by Chief:

Motang @ChiefBowser

@NataliaAntonova

And here is a very good extra hint provided by PG, who geolocated us first:

PG @Pgreer3

@peterkaminski @NataliaAntonova An extra hint, the sign in the back is laid out in a way that there has to be at least a third word after park. I at first thought park & ride, but it proved not to be the case.

Ken Campbell, who is a veteran of these challenges, also chatted with me about his route to geolocating us eventually. His route was a long one, so I won’t reproduce it here, but as we discussed — everyone arrived at the same place eventually, including, for example, Dan, who said that it took him about an hour after he started:

Dan G. @gardewind

@NataliaAntonova The Motel 6 in Newport News. Americana East Park to the NE, 7-11 to the NW. Thanks for this, a good hour of mental sweat to double check my work. Couldn't match the exact spot, but close enough. Google image from 2019.

For another good tweet about how past social media posts can be helpful in a potential search, see here:

Montana, Joe @HamRadioJoe

@NataliaAntonova not too far from (or very much time elapsed from) the last one w/ the other woman you're wearing the ,,same'' top

Please consider that the big tower in the background is very helpful to geolocation experts (and any and all stalkers!) as well:

Kalle Anka @rmo4lcit

@NataliaAntonova Unfortunately I just don't have time for a fun game today -- but I'd start with the big prominent tower in the background and use the FAA's "tall things you might crash into" database. There's also a jet contrail in your photo -- it might point at Norfolk Intl or Oceana NAS.

Why was this exercise important?

For one thing, I wanted to demonstrate that even a “difficult” geolocation challenge doesn’t have to be THAT difficult.

More importantly, and in the spirit of this newsletter, please consider the mere fact that people can easily zoom on the tiny details in your photo, cross-reference them with your other social media posts — i.e., your data ecosystem — and absolutely find you!

Here is just one hint I had previously posted, before I launched the challenge. Notice that a motel (and what was a sink that leaked everywhere, ughhhh) came up:

Natalia Antonova 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @NataliaAntonova

Seriously, if you know me, you know how hard it’s been recently. I’m so lucky that my friends make our historic outings — complete with busted tires, even more busted jacks, a motel flood and so much more — possible 2020 continues its rampage. Thank god for fuck-around gangs™️

You don’t need to be necessarily be worried about how easily you can be tracked, but you should be conscious of it. As I was explaining to a confused person on Twitter just the other day, you never know how or in what context your data can be used.

Bitter exes, malicious bosses, weirdos and randos — they’re out there, the bastards, and many of them have these skills already. As time goes on, more and more people will acquire them.

This is one of the reasons why I started this newsletter. We’re living in a time of upheaval, and a little control can go a long way. Oh, bad people are growing smarter about data? Well, so should you.

Life is not an X-Files episode (not yet, anyway, although remember that time the Navy confirmed that UFOs were real earlier this year and everyone kind of ignored it? Ahaha, good times), but it can get a little weird from time to time. And as the outmost internet expert on weirdness, I am happy to help you through these times — by helping you get smart, and snappy, and prepared. You owe it to yourself in times like these!

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