Protecting Private Information

In the article Invasion of the Computer Snatchers, the Washington Post author conducts an interview with a person who controls a botnet, with the understanding that his identity would be protected. A slashdot commenter found that within the metadata of the picture taken of individual was the location of where the photo was taken: Roland, Oklahoma, a town of less than 3000 people. Figure less than 1500 males, and significantly fewer in the age group depicted in the article… This guy is probably in trouble.

One has to wonder how many times newspapers and news organizations make simple slip-ups such as this. Granted, I have no sympathy for someone who is making a profit off a botnet, but the news media’s trustworthiness related to privacy just took a hit.
(via an old Metafilter post)