So we all know about the notorious hacker 4Chan and their ability to call in airstrikes on terrorist training camps and find flags based on frog noises and air traffic patterns.
I am an amateur at this but also pretty good. I like to use people that block their license plates as example and see how long it takes me to find their house on Google Earth. They think theyre safe with their plate blocked out, but often leave other information visible like photos of their property (land they live on) and their city and place of work.
I wont post what I put on social media for my friends to see so as to avoid doxxing someone via Google Earth views of their house. There was no interaction between us and no ill intent but Id rather be safe than sorry and not randomly post someones residence for no reason.
It took me less than 15 min using two photos and a city that was visible to locate the residence of the owner of the vehicle. I spent another 10-15 verifying the correct orientation of power lines, number of trees and their arrangement etc down to the bricks in the driveway before I was satisfied I nailed it. And I did.
Be diligent if you want to remain anonymous/private and ensure you do not have any of these things visible. Even things such as recent check ins, yard sale groups, kids sports photos etc can easily be combined with what appears to be an innocuous photo to focus with laser precision on your physical location.
This is not intended to scare; just to keep us safe. Many of us live in nice safe-ish red states but many more are also living behind enemy lines. Be diligent and stay safe pedes.
People that can quickly process information such as patterns and shapes, as well as take in a large amount of small details very quickly are very good at this type of thing. I would say you probably excel at these things even if you dont realize it. It is a mark of having a high IQ, which to my understanding is a measurement of ones ability to basically 'figure things out'.
In the earlier days of FB I made someone delete their YT channel. The guy was generally being an asshole to everyone and making outlandish claims about his lifestyle. Within an hour I had found his FB profile which was completely public. I found it through quickly scanning his videos and finding he was on a competitive CSS gaming league, and that league information was public - full name. I quickly found that he was not in fact rich and he lived in a shitty apartment with his brother and his grandparents had bought him the car he had. I had found his actual address and workplace, but did not post it. I posted just enough for him to know I was for real and could have posted the rest but didnt. His account disappeared by the next time I logged in.