A wet morning beside Southern Cross Station in Melbourne, taken on an Android phone with location on. In a copy, we moved the time the photo says it was taken three hours later. Nothing else changed.
What changed
- One time, three places. The file stores the date and time in three places. We changed all three.
- The GPS time stayed. The phone also records the satellite's own time with the location.
- They no longer close. The location puts the photo in Melbourne's time zone, and that clock now disagrees with the capture time.
What the report said: Authenticity A for the original, B for the copy. Exposure D for both: each still gives away where it was taken.
Go deeper
- How to check a photo against a story: Verifying a source photo before publishing
- How the check works: What the "GPS Timezone Triangle?" Row on a Forensic Report Actually Checks, by Kenneth Springer
- Try it on your own photo
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