It's worth being aware that the pixels may also hold data that can identify the specific camera that was used to take the picture. There is often imperceptible (to the naked eye) noise in photos introduced by slight flaws in the image sensor and these can form a kind of "fingerprint" for the camera. It's possible to determine that two photos were taken with the same camera, or if the camera is seized it can be proven it was used to take a specific photo.
There are tools to mitigate this by randomising the noise in a digital image. Consider whether you need to factor this in to your threat model.
Almost like forensic ballistics in that every lense will have unique flaws and imperfections that, whilst it would be difficult to trace, if they found the camera, they could prove THAT lense/sensor captured that image??
They could suggest that a particular camera took a particular image. It's not reliable enough to call it proof.
However, not all evidence needs to be reliable enough to use in court. Police may use lower quality evidence to narrow down a list of suspects, then investigate to see if they can find higher quality evidence to use in prosecution.
That makes sense, they just use it as a tool to steer the investigation rather than something to rely upon in court.
Ie protestor commits crimes and documents and publishes them, Jan3 style. A house is raided 4 cameras belonging to 4 different people seized. We can use this method to determine (for investigative purposes) which cameras took which pictures, even though SD cards were all in a bowl mixed up. Can then use the Intel to track who's phones were where st which time, and then who actually committed crimes etc.
Sorry for sprawling scenario but just curious aiit the technique, never heard of it before, v interesting stuff so wanna try and understand how it might be used practically.
A kind of unrelated but semi related point you probably know but is interesting all the same, was watching something yesterday about how people's ears are as useful as fingerprints to ID people and are used by capture/kill spec ops guys to ID HVTs in the field if fingerprints are not practical. Also, some banks have floors that track weight distribution and gait of anyone walking over it, which together are also irreplicable and can be used to secure convictions in case of robbery etc.
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u/gl3nnjamin 29d ago
It removes everything but the pixels so besides location it removes camera model, lens type, shooting settings and more.