OPSEC question

[DefensorFortis]

Well, I have one big question to anyone who's active duty and post personal pics and vids on AC.

I had some future soldiers classes and one of them was anti terrorism. The recruiters told us that we shouldn't be putting up pictures of ourselves posing with weapons, or taking pics and vids of classified info (common sense) taking pics of dead bodies, or even going on to face book and saying "I'm tired just came back from patrol", or "Went on operation and rode on Chinooks and Black Hawks".

It make's sense not discuss operations, or post pics or videos of things you shouldn't, but here we have AC, with thousands of personal pics and videos from people on the front line with a camera who are in the service.

Anyone who's currently serving that knows the OPSEC and pic/video posting regulations, want to fill me in on what can get me into trouble and how I could post personal pics/videos on AC while maintaining OPSEC and regultions?

[theshoebox]

Although I'm not active duty, it seems like a lot of what he said was obvious, and some of it was
just personal opinion.

What I have heard from someone who was overseas and was activity duty is that posting pictures
or videos of dead hadjis, even having them in your possession will get you in trouble.

Don't take my word for it though, always better to have actual active duty personnel tell you what's what.

[Irish]

I have a good amount of pictures on Facebook from my last deployment and from EMV. 99% of those photos a weapon can be found. As for saying something like, "tired just after a patrol." I don't really see anything wrong with that, it's pretty vague. However using specifics like the type of transport used to where you ran a patrol could get you into trouble. But believe me you're going to get plenty of classes on OPSEC before you deploy. First from your company Gunny, then by the company First Sergeant, then from the CO all reminding you what you can and can't do. Once we were Afghan we had big sign above the phones reminding us about OPSEC and more classes from SNCOs and the like. After all of the classes and reminders what OPSEC boils down to is common sense.

...for what it's worth the only time I've ever seen or heard of OPSEC being violated was when our company Gunny accused a Marine of taking his picture without him knowing. Nothing happened to this particular Marine since he didn't really violate OPSEC but even still it's never a good idea to take a picture without Gunny knowing.

[THOR51]

Well, I have one big question to anyone who's active duty and post personal pics and vids on AC.

I had some future soldiers classes and one of them was anti terrorism. The recruiters told us that we shouldn't be putting up pictures of ourselves posing with weapons, or taking pics and vids of classified info (common sense) taking pics of dead bodies, or even going on to face book and saying "I'm tired just came back from patrol", or "Went on operation and rode on Chinooks and Black Hawks".

It make's sense not discuss operations, or post pics or videos of things you shouldn't, but here we have AC, with thousands of personal pics and videos from people on the front line with a camera who are in the service.

Anyone who's currently serving that knows the OPSEC and pic/video posting regulations, want to fill me in on what can get me into trouble and how I could post personal pics/videos on AC while maintaining OPSEC and regultions?

I think the thing you have to most careful of is many new digital cameras and cell phones have embedded GPS in them that record the exact location and time the photo was taken. If the photo was taken with this technology, anyone can actually review this data. Bad, bad, bad if you want anyone to know the exact location of your bunk.

Speaking from an intelligence angle, any source of information can provide a piece of the puzzle.

[Irish]

I think the thing you have to most careful of is many new digital cameras and cell phones have embedded GPS in them that record the exact location and time the photo was taken. If the photo was taken with this technology, anyone can actually review this data. Bad, bad, bad if you want anyone to know the exact location of your bunk.

Dude honestly I think this is the least of my concerns. I don't know if what your are saying is 100% accurate so I'll just take your word for it but if it digital cameras and cell phones were a security risk than we wouldn't be allowed to have them.

[THOR51]

No. Its legit. I got a big long powerpoint on the issue. It kinda surprised me that many of the new digital cameras and cell phones are putting this info into pics.

Here is a real quick overview of what I'm talking about.

.....shit, I got "You are not allowed to post any kinds of links, images or videos until you post a few times."

"Security experts and privacy advocates have recently begun warning about the potential dangers of geotags, which are embedded in photos and videos taken with GPS-equipped smartphones and digital cameras. Because the location data is not visible to the casual viewer, the concern is that many people may not realize it is there; and they could be compromising their privacy, if not their safety, when they post geotagged media online."

So, so a search for some of the items listed in this paragraph and then pass this along to all your guys. Its "no shit" stuff here that could get you or your guys killed.

out.

[Ripcord]

I posted all my pictures in the Forum area dedicated to active/retired and veterans so there is a bit of Leniency

Our rules were
no faces or places......if you go into the ret/vet/active duty forum area you will see I did post pics of 2 specific areas..the thing is these places are well known to everyone and did not violate OPSEC
No pictures of specialized equipment.
do not post pics till you are home.
no dead bodies, ours or theirs. they could be considered as "war trophies"

there were more but they are more specific these were the main 1's