Before if your friends wanted to know where you were when they couldn't get a hold of you they'd either have to ask somebody about your whereabouts or waited until you got in contact with them saying you were at the animal hospital. With the rise of social media and the gadgets we use that's no longer the case. Websites such as Facebook and Twitter and mobile apps like Foursquare give those who need to know where you are all the information they need to find you.

We still aren't sure if that's a good or scary thing but it's something we need to live with and be wary of at the same time. Even if you've never heard of a term like geotagging you've probably done it at some point or have been involved with it somehow. If you're unaware of the term geotagging it's the process of inputting geographical identification meta data into a wide range of media like video, websites, geotagged photos, RSS feeds or text messages.

What that means is that geotagging is when you are inputting the data of your current location into a tweet on Twitter or a photo you post on Facebook. If you've ever been on Facebook or Twitter and saw a post with photo location information then you have witnessed what geotagging is. The main metadata that goes into geotagging includes longitude and latitude coordinates, altitude, distance, bearing, place names and accuracy data. If you excitedly update your status account with the address to your new home, you will be telling all your followers your address.

You don't actually have to input all that data yourself. If you are at your dentist office, your phone's app will probably have that address mapped, and can connect the dots to know exactly where you are, even though that business has 3 locations around the city. In most cases when uploading a photo to Facebook you just have to type in your current location, say a certain bar or movie theatre, and your computer or mobile device will do the rest for you. It's pretty cool being able to let your friends know where you are by not only telling them of your location but also showing it off through a picture. Plus, you can also include people that are with you so that everyone also knows who's in your posse.

However, there is a drawback to geotagging, which is that you're also announcing to the rest of the world where you are and that's not always a good thing. Social media has taken what we're doing, who we're with and where we are to a whole new level with Twitter and Facebook and if you post something on either of those sites people you aren't friends with might have access to it. You want to be as careful as possible and make sure your privacy settings are high so that you don't post a geotagged photo saying you're on your way to the airport in a taxi. If the wrong people get a hold of that information it could came back to haunt you.