[QGIS-Developer] Security Question - Is location included in file when save an image file?

[Nyall Dawson]

On Sun, 2 Jun 2019 at 17:50, Ert Four <4ert at mailbox.org> wrote:
>
> I'm a little out of my league here, I'm not a developer, but was pointed here from the QGIS-user list.
>
> My question is: Does any coordinate or location data get embedded in the image file if I use Project > Save as Image or Composer > Export as Image/PDF/SVG (other than what is literally seen in the image)?
>
> My question is primarily for 2.14.3 now, but later will have the same concern for the 3.x series when we upgrade.
>
> (I know about the option to check "World file on" and create a separate world file. What I need is to make sure there is no identifying info whatsoever from the project file in the image file itself.)

yes - regardless of that setting, the outputs are georeferenced and
have coordinates baked in*

(* depending on format support. SVG doesn't, certain raster formats
may not -- check with GDAL whether embedded georeferencing of these is
possible. It is for all the common ones at least).

Nyall


>
> Eg, say I have a basemap like OpenStreetMap open for a country and I load points in another layer that are inside that country. Then I zoom in on a group of points from my data layer, I turn off the basemap layer, and make a map with just my data points. I want to preserve the relative spatial relationships between my points but not reveal where in the world the map came from. If I publish this image file, might the metadata or anything else embedded in the file reveal the location?
>
> So far, the QGIS-user members who've responded and I have found no indications that this type of data is included, but I'm posting here in case anyone who is familiar with that code could confirm that. Sorry I'm not able to read the code myself.
>
> For the work we do, it's critically important we don't unknowingly publish specific locations. For now I'm taking screenshots to be sure nothing is transmitted, but that's a limiting workaround.
>
> Thank you, as I said in my first post to the QGIS-user list, I very much appreciate QGIS and its community!
>
> Fwiw, thread on the user list starts here: https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-user/2019-May/043218.html
> Continues here in June archive: https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-user/2019-June/043224.html
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