Geotagging accuracy in smartphone photography

After a decade of technological advancements, digital forensic science is under increasing pressure to deliver investigative findings with a high degree of scientific rigor. The judicial community has voiced growing concerns regarding digital traces and their interpretation. This research focuses on assessing the significance of geolocation information embedded within the metadata of photographs captured using a mobile phone. In order to examine the variability in the accuracy of this geolocation metadata and identify potential external influences, images were taken at 29 different locations distributed along three distinct paths. The photographs were captured using two Samsung Galaxy S8 SM-G950F devices running on Android 8.0. Various configurations of GNSS and mobile network connections were tested, and their potential impact on the accuracy of geolocation metadata was investigated. The findings show the dependency of geolocation accuracy on the specific measurement location. This research ultimately highlights the imperative for evaluative approaches to take into account the specific characteristics of each point of interest, as opposed to leaning on broad statements about the reliability of geolocation processes in general.