Images from the V2010ISU-JIG
BLOG POST posted on February 14, 2012 by infil00p
Me at Heart Attack
Do you know where this is?
This is in Victoria, at the Anarchist Bookfair
Given that it's 2012, and that very few people use film, I wanted to see the JPEG photos of myself under surveillance. I requested this under the Privacy Act and I got back the following photos in TIFF format:
The first photo is clearly from the 2010 Heart Attack demo. I know this because I remembered what shirt I wore that day. You can tell that it's before the demo because of the fact that the person next to me appears to be drinking a coffee, most likely from the nearby Starbucks. Furthermore, you can see other protesters with coffee with their faces blocked out so that Normand Sirois, the ATIP Analyst who imported/manipulated the images can protect their identities.
Wait, how did I know that these were not the original source photos? Easy, the first thing I did was look for the metadata associated with the TIFF using tiffinfo:
tiffinfo B\ 089.TIF
B 089.TIF: Warning, incorrect count for field "DateTime" (25, expecting 20); tag trimmed.
TIFFReadDirectory: Warning, B 089.TIF: unknown field with tag 32932 (0x80a4) encountered.
TIFF Directory at offset 0x8 (8)
Subfile Type: multi-page document (2 = 0x2)
Image Width: 2552 Image Length: 3300
Resolution: 300, 300 pixels/inch
Bits/Sample: 1
Compression Scheme: LZW
Photometric Interpretation: min-is-white
FillOrder: msb-to-lsb
Orientation: row 0 top, col 0 lhs
Samples/Pixel: 1
Rows/Strip: 3300
Planar Configuration: single image plane
Page Number: 0-1
Software: ImageGear Version: 11.00.054
DateTime: Mon Feb 13 16:16:43
Artist: 1996-2001 AccuSoft Co., All rights reserved
Tag 32932: 0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,2,0,0,0,12,0,0,0,73,71,79,114,105,101,110,116,32,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2,0,0,0,12,0,0,0,79,105,70,105,108,78,97,109,1,0,0,0,0,2,0,0,0,12,0,0,0,79,105,65,110,84,101,120,116,21,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,2,0,0,0,12,0,0,0,79,105,71,114,111,117,112,0,11,0,0,0,91,85,110,116,105,116,108,101,100,93,0,2,0,0,0,12,0,0,0,79,105,73,110,100,101,120,0,10,0,0,0,50,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
Now, if you look at any of the PDFs that I received from the RCMP, you can tell that AccuSoft is the same software that is used by RCMP ATIP when they release documents as PDF. That tells me that this most likely was created in Ottawa by Normand Sirois so that he could send me this information, or that this was originally scanned in Vancouver. I'm definitely going to be filing a follow-up to this Privacy Act request to see how this one was handled, but there's clearly some information here.
The practice of using film as opposed to using JPEG images makes sense from a logistical standpoint, as I'm not able to harvest any data out of the EXIF tags to expose where undercover officers were located. This is important for the 2nd image, because the 2nd image is a close-up shot next to a tree and a weird sign. It's clear that I'm posing in this shot, so it was taken by an undercover police officer. The thing is that I don't remember this picture being taken by the RCMP, or where in Vancouver this sign would have existed.
Before the Olympics, I wasn't paranoid enough. I assumed that as long as I didn't talk about what I was doing in public, and that if I covered my ass by getting a legal opinion that I would be perfectly fine. It seems that this was complete bullshit, and that I wasn't paranoid enough. I did practice security culture, which is why I'm not in jail now (even though I didn't do anything). What's interesting about this is that there's no indication by the VPD that the RCMP were even present at Heart Attack.
Attached is the original source material. These images are the original TIFF files that were scanned in by the RCMP.
UPDATE: I was wrong. Film wasn't used after all. Normand sent me a copy of the original file. So now that I have the full image, let's see the EXIF data:
bowserj@parsons:~/Downloads$ exiftool 425_Surv.jpg
ExifTool Version Number : 8.60
File Name : 425_Surv.jpg
Directory : .
File Size : 995 kB
File Modification Date/Time : 2012:02:14 11:41:05-08:00
File Permissions : rw-rw-r--
File Type : JPEG
MIME Type : image/jpeg
Exif Byte Order : Little-endian (Intel, II)
Make : Canon
Camera Model Name : Canon PowerShot S2 IS
Orientation : Horizontal (normal)
X Resolution : 180
Y Resolution : 180
Resolution Unit : inches
Modify Date : 2008:09:14 09:41:34
Y Cb Cr Positioning : Centered
Excellent. We have a lot more forensic data that we can use to pinpoint this shot. We know that the RCMP Surveillance agent who took this shot used a Canon PowerShot S2 IS, and we also know that this was taken on September 14, 2008. This would have been on a Sunday during the Victoria Anarchist Bookfair, which is why I don't recognize the background. It indicates that it was taken at 9:41 AM, so assuming that the RCMP set the time right, this would have been taken in the morning on Day 2 of the Bookfair when I'm heading back in and doing a shift at the table.
At any rate, I recommend people request source files, since there is still data in them. Of course, I am not sure whether the RCMP will see this and then start stripping EXIF data, but I'm hoping that doesn't happen.
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