With the internet and a lot of time, people can find just about anything and anyone. Some sleuths go to lengths that were previously unimaginable with the help of just a few words, pictures, or screenshots. While that might be cool, it’s also kind of creepy to imagine.
A staggering number of people post pictures and geo-tag them. The only problem is that it can open them up to stalkers or, in this case, amateur sleuths. After seeing how this guy can find people’s locations so easily, you might think twice about posting online.
More info: TikTok
Man is able to pinpoint the exact restaurant that a person visited and their food order just by analyzing one blacked-out picture
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
“They're gonna have to be a bit more thorough if they want to hide something from me”
The poster is a man named Yuval, who goes by the name 'yuvaltheterrible' on TikTok. He became famous for being able to determine a person’s height by simply looking at a photo of them. He recently put his skills to use to find out the exact locations where people had taken a video or a picture. Many even challenged him to find out where they were. In his recent video, he was sent a screenshot of someone’s food order with the restaurant name blacked out.
Yuval wasn’t deterred and began narrowing down key details, starting with a person’s profile picture that was visible in the screenshot. He was able to find the man’s name and began going through the guy’s post history for more clues. Through seemingly random research, he was able to pinpoint a location, saying: “I also found this post from someone else asking you for food recommendations in New York. So it seems as if people know you live here.”
Image credits: @yuvaltheterrible
But he just had a general location and didn’t yet know where the food order was from. Yuval said, “you might think knowing that he might be in New York wouldn't really be of much help, considering we still can't see any of the branding.” That’s when he pointed out the letters ‘M A N O’ that could be seen on the food order and shared that the other lettering seemed Arabic.
Using those letters, he began searching for restaurants in New York. He narrowed it down to two possible options. Yuval said, “going over to Manousheh Bleecker, I'm able to see what looks like an open version of the food in that photo right next to some very familiar paper. And zooming in on the bottom left we can see the 'M A N O.'” To prove that he found the exact item, he went and bought the food and ate it, which is a bit of a flex, if you ask me.
Image credits: @yuvaltheterrible
You can find the full video here
It might seem creepy that someone can find a person’s exact location just by looking at a few details in their pictures or posting history
Image credits: Samson Katt (not the actual photo)
It’s become easier than ever to stalk people online through the things they share. Even the people who don’t post a lot end up revealing important details about where they are and what they are doing. That’s why it’s necessary to post judiciously. Yuval’s intention behind creating this video was probably to spook people and showcase his sleuthing ability, but it also highlighted something important.
Whether you’ve blacked out important details from your photos or tried to hide where you are, if your account is public, people can find you. The most interesting, albeit creepy example of this is a website called I Know Where Your Cat Lives. The project uses publicly available cat pictures on the net, tracks where they live, and tags them on a map.
As the site’s creator mentioned, “we set out on this adventure with a mission in mind: to point out the ease of access to data and photos on the web. We sought to showcase how readily available social media users’ information and snapshots are to the general public.” Our geo-tags and photo metadata might even help people pinpoint our whereabouts.
As usual, there are people who can misuse this information. For example, a man assaulted a woman after finding her exact location by seeing the reflection in her eyes in her selfies. This is an extreme case, but it’s important for us to see what information we’ve made public so that nobody can take advantage of what we post online.
Image credits: Brett Sayles (not the actual photo)
In this case, Yuval used his talents to find out where people were or how tall they were and to amuse his audience. People would even challenge him by sending their pictures and videos. But this isn’t always the case and predators can find the same information, just like he did. So it’s important for people to take internet safety seriously.
It’s especially important for kids to know how to protect themselves online. Social media is an easy tool for stalkers, and children have to be smart about what they post. They should not keep their accounts public or geotag the places that they frequent because they can become the target of predators.
Another important thing that people don’t realize is posting while traveling is also unsafe. People love to put up pictures of themselves on holiday but it can let people know exactly where they are. This can open them up to robbery, assault, and a whole host of unsafe situations. That’s why it’s best to put up holiday pictures once you’re back, just to be on the safe side.
Yuval’s entertaining videos are slightly creepy to watch, but teach people exactly how easy it is to find out where they are. In a world where people have a lot of time on their hands and high-speed internet, privacy is no longer possible. That’s why this video got 24.2 million views and 3.6 million likes with people saying that he should probably work for the FBI. What did you think of the poster’s superb tracking skills? Let us know if he’d be able to find you.
People in the comments compared him to Joe Goldberg and one person even joked that Yuval should be hired to find them if they ever went missing
