FAQ / Location tags in Flickr

What are "cell tags"?

Cell tags identify the cellular tower that your phone connected to in order to upload your photo to Flickr. Each cellular tower that your carrier uses has a unique ID. If you choose, ZoneTag can add cell tags to photos you upload to Flickr.

Cell tower information is comprised of five numerical codes that represent the mobile network that you are connected to:

• cell:network (name of your cellular carrier, usually).
• cell:mcc (your mobile country code)
• cell:mnc (your carrier's code)
• cell:lac (the location area code)
• cell:cellid (the cell tower ID).

Your mobile network uses the codes to indicate what country, region, and city you were in when you took the photo.

ZoneTag combines four of the five codes to form one "virtual location tag" for your photo. The format of the tag is: cell:cgi=MCC-MNC-LAC-CELLID. You can click on this tag to see other photos you took in that same "virtual location."

From the ZoneTag settings page, you can configure ZoneTag to add each code as an individual cell tag: cell:network, cell:mcc, cell:mnc, cell:lac, and cell:cellid.

How does ZoneTag know my location?

ZoneTag attempts to translate cell tags to a location name that we mortals can understand. ZoneTag learns about real world cell locations from users like you! There are three ways for you (and other users) to teach ZoneTag the correct location of the cell ID:

1. When you choose to upload your photo, enter your location on the ZoneTag client. You can enter a city name or zip code.
2. You can tag your Flickr photo with the zip code (i.e. zip:12345) where it was taken.
3. You can use the 'Update (or Fix) Location' link in your photo caption and set the city, state or zip code where the photo, and other nearby photos, were taken. Try it!
4. You are using a Bluetooth GPS device with ZoneTag. All you have to do is connect ZoneTag to the GPS device.

If even one user updates the location of that cell ID, we will be able to learn it and subsequent photos uploaded with the same cell ID will have the correct city, state and zip code tags automatically associated with the photo.

How do I hide my location tags on Flickr?

No problem. When you are uploading your photo to Flickr, you will see a menu option, "Apply location tags?". Select "No", and your location tags and cell tags will not show up on Flickr. ZoneTag will remember this setting for subsequent photo uploads.

I changed my mind and I want my location tags to be displayed on Flickr. How do I do that?

Once a photo is uploaded to Flickr, click on the "Update (or Fix) Location" link in the photo caption. You will be able to re-assign location tags to this photo and other nearby photos. For future uploads, remember to change your settings so that location tags are displayed; simply select "Yes" under the menu option "Apply location tags?".

I only see the cell tags for my Flickr photo. Where are the location tags for my photo?

We do not have location information yet for every cell ID. The good news is that you can easily add this information so your future photos will be correctly tagged. There are two ways that you can do this:

1. You can tag your Flickr photo with the zip code (i.e. zip:12345) where it was taken.
2. You can use the 'Update Location' link in your photo caption and set the city, state or zip code where the photo and other nearby photos were taken.

Our system will learn this information and will tag future pictures taken in that cell ID with the new location information. Please give us 24 hours to update the database with the new location information.

You tagged the wrong location for my photo; how do I fix it?

Oops! This can certainly happen - cell towers often cover multiple cities, and we may have chosen the wrong one; also, maybe there is a mistake in our data... but, good news! there are two ways that you can help us fix this:

1. You can tag your Flickr photo with the zip code (i.e. zip:12345) where it was taken.
2. You can use the 'Update Location' link in your photo caption and set the city, state or zip code where the photo and other nearby photos were taken.

Our system will learn this information and will tag future pictures taken in that that cell ID with the new location information. Please give us 24 hours to update the database with the new location information. Feel free to delete the incorrect location tag from your Flickr photo.

By the way, did we mention that this data will help make your experience, as well as other users' experience, better? Thanks!

Can I use a GPS device with ZoneTag?

If you are using a Bluetooth GPS device, see instructions on how to connect your GPS to ZoneTag and automatically tagging your photos with GPS coordinates. Thanks, you rock!

Why is my ZoneTag photo not appearing on Flickr the map?

In order for your ZoneTag photo to appear on the Flickr map, you have to configure your geo privacy preferences in Flickr.

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