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Merrick, NY--As more and more jewelers use Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites as a means of marketing, they may unknowingly be putting themselves in harm’s way with every picture they post.

Many digital cameras—and almost all smartphones—are enabled with geotagging software. Geotagging is metadata (data about data) embedded in a photo that can tell a user exactly where the photo was taken, literally to within 10 or 15 feet. Digital cameras are more likely to require the user to opt in; i.e., activate the geotag feature. But smartphones frequently require an opt-out; i.e. they default to the “on” setting. So unless you turn off the geotagging feature, when you use your phone to tweet a picture of a fabulous ring you just saw at a trade show, or put up photos from last night’s cocktail soiree, you’re announcing to the world exactly where you and the ring are.

Certainly there are people who want everyone to know they’re in Paris or that they’ve just achieved mayor status on Foursquare. But the key difference is in wanting people to know, vs. inadvertently broadcasting your whereabouts to everyone from envious friends to dangerous criminals.

This report on New York’s Channel 7 ABC explains more. Meanwhile, the website I Can Stalk U raises awareness of geotag data, and lists steps for disabling it on a number of popular smart phone models.