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Event-App Partiful Exposed Users’ Raw GPS Coordinates via Profile Photos

3 Mins Read

A recent investigation revealed that the event planning app Partiful failed to strip GPS metadata from user-uploaded photos, meaning that anyone using basic web tools could access precise latitude/longitude data tied to images stored in the app’s Firebase backend. The company acknowledged the flaw, fast-tracked a fix, and reprocessed existing uploads to remove location info. The oversight raised serious concerns—particularly as Partiful has grown into a social graph connecting users’ events, contacts, and locations, and some have already raised alarm over its founders’ prior ties to Palantir.
Sources:
TechSpot
,
TechBuzz
Key Takeaways
– The metadata exposure meant that users’ home, work, or other precise photo-capture locations could have been revealed to anyone inspecting backend image files.
– Partiful responded within days: it stripped metadata from new and existing photos, and publicly disclosed the vulnerability.
– The incident underscores how even startups must treat data hygiene—especially location metadata—as a foundational privacy requirement, not an optional extra.
In-Depth
Partiful is carving out a niche as a hip, minimalist alternative to Facebook Events—a fast, stylish way to plan gatherings and manage RSVPs. But in a recent deep dive, TechCrunch’s security team discovered that Partiful was not automatically stripping geolocation metadata (EXIF GPS tags) from photos that users uploaded, including profile images. These tags—standard in almost every smartphone photo—store precise latitude and longitude coordinates. Because Partiful stored the “raw” images in Google’s Firebase backend, anyone with decent tech savvy could access them through browser developer tools and extract that GPS data.
To validate the issue, TechCrunch uploaded a photo taken outside San Francisco’s Moscone West convention center, which included exact coordinates. When examined on the server side, the photo still carried the same location metadata, confirming that Partiful had not scrubbed it before or during storage. In effect, if someone had snapped a photo at or near their home or workplace and used it as their Partiful profile picture, that location could have been exposed to any user who poked around.
That’s a serious lapse. Most major platforms deploy metadata-stripping by default for privacy reasons; leaving it intact is widely regarded as negligent when you’re storing user photos. Recognizing the gravity, TechCrunch alerted the Partiful team, which acknowledged the issue was “already on our team’s radar” and soon accelerated its fix cycle. Within days, Partiful stripped metadata from new uploads and reprocessed older images to remove sensitive GPS information. The company also publicly disclosed the bug and said it was investigating whether any improper access occurred.
This scandal is more than just a technical slip—it touches on trust, transparency, and the responsibilities that come with collecting user data. It also arrives amid scrutiny over Partiful’s founding team, which includes former Palantir employees. Some critics had already flagged privacy concerns around those ties; this incident amplifies them. As Partiful transitions from a simple event tool toward becoming a social graph (connecting users, tracking interactions, and mapping their events), data safety becomes essential rather than optional.
For users, this is a reminder: disable geographic tagging in your camera app settings, view or strip metadata before posting images, and treat every platform as a potential vector of exposure. For startups—and investors—metadata hygiene should be part of the security baseline, not an afterthought. As Partiful scales, its ability to safeguard sensitive information will be pivotal to whether it becomes a trusted platform or a cautionary tale.

Tech

Everlasting Storage? DNA ‘Cassette Tape’ Could Hold 80 Million DVDs — If We Had the Time

4 Mins Read

Chinese researchers led by Xingyu Jiang from the Southern University of Science and Technology have unveiled a prototype “DNA cassette tape” system that promises unbelievable storage density (theoretical limits on the order of 80 million DVDs per kilometer) and multi-century durability — but with write and read speeds so slow that filling even a small fraction of its potential would take ages. The system uses a polyester-nylon composite tape patterned with barcode “tracks” (about 5.45×10⁵ addressable partitions per 1,000 meters) for indexing, synthetic DNA strands are deposited in partitions, then sealed under a protective layer of zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF). In proof-of-concept, they stored and recovered a 156.6 KB image (“lantern”) through several operations including deposition, erasure, recovery, and redeposition — but current speed and cost make the system impractical for large-scale use.
Sources:
The Register
,
Science
Key Takeaways
– Massive capacity vs. practical limits: While theoretically this DNA tape could store petabytes per meter (e.g. ~362 PB/km), current measured capacity is far lower, and the throughput (writing/reading) is extremely slow — orders of magnitude below conventional storage media.
– Longevity and stability are strong points: The protective ZIF coating and molecular design suggest retention of data for several hundred years at room temperature; longer in colder conditions. This makes it appealing for cold or archive storage.
– Engineering challenges are real: DNA synthesis and sequencing are costly, and reaction times (encapsulation, decapsulation, deposition, recovery) are slow. Scaling up to fill even a small fraction of the tape’s possible capacity would take impractical amounts of time and resources with today’s tech.
In-Depth
The new DNA cassette tape system represents a striking fusion of old and new: taking the physical format of magnetic tape — known for archival storage — and combining it with the dense information-carrying power of synthetic DNA. Researchers designed a polyester-nylon composite strip, ink-jet printed with barcodes to divide it into hundreds of thousands of partitions per kilometer (about 5.45×10⁵ per 1,000 m), each partition addressable at up to roughly 1,570 partitions per second. Into each hydrophilic partition, synthetic DNA is deposited; a protective zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) is then used to encapsulate it, defending against heat, enzymes, and environmental damage.
In trials, the team successfully demonstrated data deposition and recovery: specifically, a 156.6 KB image of a lantern, stored, retrieved, erased, and redeposited through multiple cycles. However, the time required is daunting: full cycle operations (deposit, recovery, erase etc.) took on the order of tens of minutes to hours. Some steps — like three recoveries and one redeposition — took about 150 minutes, and even with optimizations the fastest possible recovery could be around 47 minutes.
Perhaps most striking is the gap between what’s possible in theory and what’s viable now. Theoretical maximum storage density sits near 362 petabytes per kilometer, equivalent to ~80 million DVDs. But current measured capacity per kilometer is much less (on the order of tens of gigabytes). For example, one experiment shows about 74.7 GB per km in its present form.
That said, the durability prospects are strong: modeling suggests retention of data around 345 years at room temperature, with extended longevity under cooler conditions. That makes the technology especially appealing for cold archive storage (data that’s written rarely and seldom read).
From a conservative, realistic standpoint, the DNA cassette tape is not something you’d deploy today for your main file server or frequent backups. Costs, speed, and scalability are all roadblocks. But in a world where data growth (in science, media, government, history) is exploding, this kind of archival medium may become indispensable. If DNA writing/synthesis and sequencing technologies improve (faster, cheaper), then what seems nearly fantastical now could become a backbone of long-term data preservation.