It's very common for people take photos of themselves on a daily basis. Given that smartphones' technologies allow people to do just that, the quality of images the devices can produce however, have scary implications.
This was experienced by Ena Matsuoka, a member of the Japanese band 'Tenshitsukinukeniyomi' (天使突抜ニ読ミ).
A stalker managed to track her down, and found her home address by just looking at her selfies. By zooming in on her photos and see the reflection in her eyes, the obsessed fan, Hibiki Sato, was able to know her location by identifying a bus stop and the surrounding scenery.
With the information he gathered, Sato matched them to a street using Google Maps.
Sato then stalked and attacked Matsuoka in front of her house.
It was on September 1st, 2019 that Sato waited at a bus stop for Matsuoka to arrive at her home in Tokyo.
When practically no one was looking, Sato proceeded by approaching her from behind and gagging her with a piece of cloth when she had just reached her door. Sato then dragged her into a dark corner not far from her residence.
Sato continued by molesting and assaulting her, which ended with a fight that caused an injury to Matsuoka's face.
Sato eventually admitted to the attack when he was arrested on September 17th.
Speaking to the authorities, Sato claimed that he was a huge fan of Matsuoka.
Sato also claimed that he know where Matsuoka lives from the videos she had posted that inadvertently showed how her curtains were positioned, and how the light shone through the windows. He was able to guess which floor Matsuoka lives based on the windows and the angle of the sunlight in her eyes, and match the information using Google Street View.
Like most young Instagram users, Matsuoka often posts selfies and the likes to update her fans. And Sato took advantage of her habit.
This type of stalking is clearly an absolutely reprehensible act, and the attack itself is even more deplorable.
What makes this incident concerning is that, not only a person was attacked by someone who is obsessed, but it also shows how technologies that are packed inside smartphones have gotten better by the year.
With only a small amount of information, things people share can be inadvertently used against them.
Anything can be used to track people in this modern-days of the internet and social media. Commonly, stalkers can identify an address from geo-tagged photos uploaded to social media networks. Going further than that, even the tiniest details like a glimpse of an identifying landmark in the background can also be used to identify an address.
In the case of Matsuoka, it was the reflection in her eyes.
Fans of J-pop groups have called for better protection of their female idols after several high-profile stalking and assault cases in recent years.
For example, Maho Yamaguchi, ex-member of pop group NGT48, spoke out in January about an alleged assault in which two men entered her house and tackled her. In another case, singer Mayu Tomita was stabbed dozens of times by a stalker.