Geotagging on Safari

We all love looking at beautiful pictures of animals in Africa. Thanks to social media, when your friends or family are out on Safari, you can see those pictures long before they get home. What a great way to share in their excitement and see Africa without getting on a plane. The downside is, there are other people looking at those pictures as well. People who don’t just want to enjoy how beautiful these animals are. People who want to profit from them. Sadly, people who want to kill them.

Poachers have been using social media to find the locations of elephants and rhinos for a number of years. Rhino horns and elephant tusks can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a poacher. And in case you’re not clear how it works, they have to kill the animal to get them. When you take a picture, the geotagging feature found on smartphones and many cameras also captures the location where that photo was taken. When you post that picture on social media, the “bad guys” can find that info and know where to go look for their next target.

A great way to prevent this from happening and help reduce the number of animals being killed in Africa is to turn off the geotagging feature on your phone and camera. Every phone and camera will be a little different, but you can Google the phrase “disable geotagging [insert phone or camera name here]” to get simple instructions for your device. If you like having the location of your photos recorded, be sure to turn this back on once you get home.

Please share this information with your friends and family to help protect the animals we all love and enjoy so much!

Written by Doug Orens, Vice President, Plaza Travel

Enter Sweepstakes!

Digital Travel Magazine

To help you discover ways to explore the world, we're pleased to share our digital travel magazines, The Travel Experience and Ultimate Experience.

View Magazines

Shore Excursions

Save money and escape the crowds. Hot Deals and multi-port packages. Savings of up to 50%!

View Excursions

Free Mobile App Download

Our free app that allows you to carry all of the destination information you need while traveling, right in your pocket!

Download the Phone App!

Travel Insurance

We recommend you purchase a travel protection plan to help protect you and your trip investment against the unexpected.

Buy Travel Insurance