Raising Awareness of Location Information Vulnerabilities in Social Media Photos using LLMs
Journal:
arXiv
Published Date:
Mar 26, 2025
Abstract
Location privacy leaks can lead to unauthorised tracking, identity theft, and
targeted attacks, compromising personal security and privacy. This study
explores LLM-powered location privacy leaks associated with photo sharing on
social media, focusing on user awareness, attitudes, and opinions. We developed
and introduced an LLM-powered location privacy intervention app to 19
participants, who used it over a two-week period. The app prompted users to
reflect on potential privacy leaks that a widely available LLM could easily
detect, such as visual landmarks & cues that could reveal their location, and
provided ways to conceal this information. Through in-depth interviews, we
found that our intervention effectively increased users' awareness of location
privacy and the risks posed by LLMs. It also encouraged users to consider the
importance of maintaining control over their privacy data and sparked
discussions about the future of location privacy-preserving technologies. Based
on these insights, we offer design implications to support the development of
future user-centred, location privacy-preserving technologies for social media
photos.
