The metadata in the photos of the passports

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tl;dr Dated September 2014, taken by Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9515.

The news published by Fokus caused a lot of interest and therefore this additional information could be of use to the public debate.

Six photos are published on the newspaper’s website. Five of these photos are made between the 9th and the 10th of September 2014. This could be concluded from the metadata of the photos.

The sixth photograph is edited in Photoshop most probably by the editorial team of Fokus in order to hide the identity of the person.

According to the metadata the photos are taken with Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9515), a phone which is on sale since May 2014. Even if it was bought immediately after its release for sale it could have not been used to take a photo of something related to the previous elections. (The last elections ended on April 27th 2014.)

Given the aforementioned and unless someone had already engaged in “playing” with the metadata of these photos ( which can be simply done in Photoshop as shown in photo no.6) these photos really are taken in September 2014 with a device not older than 6 months and one which is relatively expensive( more than 20.000,00 MKD, approximately 325 EUR retail price).

Updated on 30.11.2014: In the printed edition of Fokus there is one more photo, one which shows some kind of a machine. This photo is not published on the web site. This photo shows several letters of the machine’s brand. The research in the brand database of WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) provides information about a brand that is very similar to the one shown on the photo. This brand is Original Perfecta, a brand owned by a company that produces paper cutting machines.

The brand was used by the Werner Lamberz company from Leibzig, East Germany, registered for the Dannish jurisdiction in 1963.

Uptade—FAQ:

1. Wasn’t Samsung Galaxy S4 available on the market since 2013?

There are two types of Galaxy S4 models. The first one was released in 2013. This is the GT-I9505 model.. (Link to T-Mobile.mk website.) he second one is the Galaxy S4 Value Edition model GT-I9515 released for sale in May 2014 as provided for by the link in the text above.

2. Is it possible that the photos are taken in September 2014 by photographing the video?

Focus published that it received both video and photos:

Without entering into discussion whether or not taking a photo of a video and getting good quality photos is an easy job, the video published by Fokus does not contain the same footages shown on the photos. This either means that Fokus did not receive the whole video material; the published material is not complete or the photos are taken independently. There are too many possibilities.

Updated 01.12.2014:

The incomplete version of this text was published in Kurir: http://kurir.mk/makedonija/vesti/180825-FOTO-Sto-pokazuvaat-metapodatoci...

With small changes the text was published in: Republika - with small changes: http://republika.mk/?p=352925, Evesti - http://evesti.mk/2014/12/01/sto-pokazuvaat-metapodatocite/, RSM - http://rsm.mk/web/?p=21192, Puls 24 - http://puls24.mk/makedonija/vesti/foto-sto-pokazuvaat-metapodatocite-na-..., Mreza.mk - http://www.mreza.mk/%D1%88%D1%82%D0%BE-%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B6%D1....

Updated 02.12.2014:

The text was fully published in Okno: http://okno.mk/node/42741.

Parts in Vecer: http://vecer.mk/makedonija/n-snimkata-so-pasoshite-ne-e-pravena-vo-maked...

All the news fromtime.mk: http://www.time.mk/?q=%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B0%D...

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