Cell phones have created myriad ways for significant others to be shady. Snapchat, anyone? They’ve also created countless ways to catch them.
A private investigator and beauty influencer in Florida has some advice on how to find out more about that photo that your significant other just sent you. Were they really where they said they were? And were they there at the time they said?
You can learn all this and more with Mackenzie Fultz’s simple trick.
Judging by the 3 million views and 16,000 likes Fultz’s Facebook reel has so far, plenty of people are taking her advice.
Fultz didn’t immediately respond to a direct message sent via Facebook.
A picture’s worth 1,001 words
On Friday, Fultz posted a reel with a caption that includes, “Consider this your friendly reminder: Everything leaves a trail.”
The reel shows Fultz sitting in a car with a handheld camera. Text overlay on the short clip tells people to save photos they receive to learn more.
This will work with an iPhone, an Android, or on your computer.
If using a phone, click on the photo. Then click the button for “info.” If using a computer, right-click on the photo, then select “info.” You’ll see a pop-up that reveals the time and date the photo was taken and where.
So if your partner says they’re working late and texts you a picture of their office with a sad face emoji, you can find out if they actually took that photo in the office when they said they did.
This alone doesn’t prove anything, however. People are known to reuse old photos. But it can provide some evidence to validate or invalidate your suspicions.
The Daily Dot also found that the trick works if you save a photo to an iPhone, then email it to yourself and download it on your computer.
People in the comments were shocked and appalled. One pointed out that this is a great reason to never send photos to people you don’t know and trust. “Creepers are everywhere!” they cautioned.
Maintain your privacy
There’s good news for those inclined to maintain their privacy. You can keep your photos from being breadcrumbs leading anyone who has them to your location.
If you’re using an iPhone, navigate to settings, tap privacy and security, then locations services, camera, and select “never.”
For an Android, open the camera app, tap settings (the three horizontal lines), then GPS, and turn it off.
To turn it off for a specific photo on iPhone, tap the photo, go to info, and then you can adjust or remove the time and location separately.
On an Android, open the photo and select the three dots. Then choose edit, and you’ll be able to adjust or remove location data. Google notes that you can’t edit or remove locations that were automatically added by a device.
On a Mac, Apple says that you need to select the photo(s) you want to remove metadata from. Then choose image, followed by the location, and hide or revert to original location.
For the photo app on your computer, you may have to search the web for specific instructions. Most involve some variation of adjusting the privacy settings in an app or changing the metadata on individual photos.
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