Images on the Web Question

[Pentacle]

I'm a bit new here, but I have a background as a graphic designer and this question has been bugging me for a while. Is there any way for an image on the web to be traced to a particular computer? I'm curious as to if when you make graphics (GIMP, Photoshop, even Paint) if there is something that can be pinpointed to an exact computer? I've also been wondering this: If someone saves an image from the net (google image search for example) and uploads it to somewhere else from their files, is there a way the file can be linked back to the computer that saved it? I guess an easier way to look at that is, is there any way an image can be traced as to where and how many times it was saved? Could you keep track of an image's popularity and maker with something like this?

[pretentious]

I'm not an expert with this but from what i know, there isn't any information in the image file to give hints to it's origin. Also, how do you expect to identify the computer? it's IP address or MAC address? I see no reason for any such information to be carried by the file.

[centip3de]

I'm not sure... I know when I was studying a bitmap library, there was a more-or-less metadata that was needed in-order for Windows to shut the hell up and make the window that contained it. But, nothing that could be traced to your computer. Though, I know that in videos there is a way to find where the video originated from. I'm sure you could develop a way to specially pack each picture to contain a certain symbol, or line of code, or what have you that could be linked back to you.

[LoGiCaL__]

Information can be put into pictures. Some cameras do it, and if you ever loose the camera you can search for the info online for any other pictures that may have been taken with that camera.

The tricky part here would be keeping track of it and keeping it accurate. The only thing that really comes to mind is keeping a download count or number visited to the link where the original picture is. This doesn't help if other people pass it off after that site though. Possibly put some info into the picture and create some webcrawler that would check .jpg's and try to parse our the identifying information. If you were able to come up with something to put in the pictures and send info back to a central server, you would also probably have to let the owner know in advance.

[VPR3]

Its very possible find the image source. Different camera's or phones embed different data, including peoples name among other things. But you can potentially do so much more than source to a computer. For example, one image led to finding, name, address, telephone number(s), driving license and driving record for the husband and wife, social security and more. I got their tax information a couple days ago. But there's really a lot you can find if you know where to look for info.

[Pentacle]

Thanks for the quick replies! I'm also wondering, from my time as a mod on another forum 'back in tha day'...One of my jobs was to run around making sure everyone followed the image size requirements on the site and I used properties a ton (IE, yes) where you could see the url where the image was hosted (photobucket was the main one back then). On forums, does that mean the image, when it's not hosted elsewhere, is actually uploaded onto the forums? What about bandwidth issues?

And on a sidenote, why doesn't HTS allow for image uploading from URLS (my beloved hosting sites ;( )? Or am I just not seeing it?

[tremor77]

In response to the OP -most image formats for web allow for the saving of metadata.

Using "export for web" option in Abobe Photoshop, for jpg, gif and png, you can save the metadata on file save.

To add or view metadata on a file in photoshop (cs5) use CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+i (i for info) and bring up the file metadata information.. such things as copyright information, originating URL, description, keywords and more can be added to it.

IN FACT! There is an entire organization dedicated to a standards and practices for uniform photo metadata - visit

http://www.iptc.org/cms/site/index.html?channel=CH0089 Check it out!

[Dahaar]

@tremor I did'nt know that there is an organization for that. Because, apparently, as long as the use of metadatas isn't standardized and contained in every file, a systematic use of them rather useless.

and @vpr, yeah, when a file doesn't have any extern host, it's stored on the forum/or better the server itself. That's one of the reasons for filesize limitations.
And what do you mean with uploading from URLs? when you just mean to include a image from another site in a post, that is possible with the 'img' - BBCode.

[Pentacle]

Thanks tremor, I'll definitely be checking that out.

And as for URL, I mean another option of uploading it from an image hosting site like Photobucket. I can still do that through the browse option on forums??