Geo-tagging

The Andhra Pradesh government has announced that it will take measures to geo-tag every parcel of land to curb illegal practices in registration system.

Home Minister N Chinarajappa also says the government will rein in rowdies by keeping tabs on their movements through geo-tagging system.

Calling for a massive plantation drive during the monsoon, the CM asked Collectors to go for geo-tagging of plants to protect them.

Geotagging is the process of adding geographical information to various media in the form of metadata. The data usually consists of coordinates like latitude and longitude, but may even include bearing, altitude, distance and place names.

Geotagging is most commonly used for photographs and can help people get a lot of specific information about where the picture was taken or the exact location of a friend who logged on to a service.

According to Techpedia, Geotagging location services can be used to find location-specific websites, news and other information. It is based on positions and coordinates and is often directly taken from a global positioning system (GPS).

Some social networking sites and services give out the location of their users, which allows users to know exactly where their friends are as they are logged on to that website (or check-in to the service).

When tagging photos, the tagging may be done by the camera after processing the shot, or it can be applied when the photo is posted online. Some high-end cell phones have built-in GPS, so they can geotag any photos taken using the phone's camera.

However, privacy advocates have expressed concern about geotagging, particularly when it occurs without the knowledge or consent of the person uploading a file.

For example, geotag data associated with photographs uploaded to Facebook can inform viewers when the user is out or on vacation, thus endangering home security.

Geotagging can also facilitate cyberstalking, by allowing the perpetrator to track the victim's physical location. Metadata removal tools exist for the specific purpose of deleting geotags from uploaded files, writes http://whatis.techtarget.com.

Earlier,emphasizing the use of technology, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also called for reporting of assets created by MNREGA, through geo-tagging and uploading of photographs with hand-held devices.

He also called for all water bodies to be identified through unique numbers and geo-tagging. Progress of electrification of all unelectrified villages is proceeding at a rapid pace is being tracked in real-time using sophisticated technology applications, including geo-tagging.