Imagine you are a popular content creator on PixelFed, many followers, but many stalkers also. You don’t want people to know where you live. One day you post a picture of the sun out of your window. Exact time is attached in metadata. Assuming GPS metadata is stripped, can someone, using inclination of the sun to the horizon, Nautical Almanac and some math calculate your latitude and/or longitude, and to what precision? Assuming also meteorological data archives on cloudiness, etc.

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    At any given moment there’s a full circle of points on the surface of the earth at which the sun has the same given zenith angle. So without any other information, the best you could do is narrow it down to some point on such a circle.

    • Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org
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      2 months ago

      But then come in the geoguessers and based on other clues will figure out the exact location, probably within few minutes.

      • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        A correct guess isn’t usually based on a single clue, but on using multiple clues to narrow the possibilities down in different ways. So every potential clue matters and should be considered, instead of assuming it’s irrelevant because there are other clues present as well.