Thumbnails on a USB stick, could they get there any other way than by directly saving them?

[sarita-c]

I have just found some thumbnails of pretty dodgy pictures on a friend's memory stick that he has given me to print some (normal) pictures, does this mean he has saved those photos on to it at some stage? Could they have got on there any other way than him saving them? I know it's a daft question, and I am fairly tech savvy, but this is a bit embarrassing...!

 

[swifty_morgan]

you can't be too tech savvy. what's the procedure when you save pic?

 

[COLGeek]

Not likely that they got there any other way than someone purposely saving to that location.

 

[sarita-c]

It's not me trying to save them, Swifty, I have found some very dodgy pics on a friend's USB stick and it surprises me. It is all in a DCIM file with the subfiles .thumbnails, Camera, Snapshot. The latter two are empty, and the thumbnails has three poor quality images, and two white rectangles marked "thumbdata3" plus numbers. How would these have been created and could it be from receiving a whatsapp or something without "meaning to"? I'm hoping he didn't deliberately put them on there...

 

[swifty_morgan]

didn't say it was. said it was your friend. but why so guilty about it? format the stick don't tell the world........... or you could embarrass your friend and ask if he wants the pics back.......... so is the way of the world.......... consult a priest.

 

[sarita-c]

thank you for your replies, and I appreciate your advice, but in this particular case it is important to me to know, I prefer not to go into too much detail, just want the tech advice, thanks!

 

[swifty_morgan]

buy your own and give that one back to your friend and say thanks, but I just realized I had one. then never say anything about it.

 

[unoriginal1]

It's possible he didn't realize where he was putting them yes. Especially if he already had defaults set to save to that location; however, typically a usb drive is not going to be the default location (usually set to like downloads, or pictures or videos in the C. So the chances are slim.

At this point i'd just give him the drive back. Say hey man... Love you.. But not that much 😉. lol. And let that be that.

 

[sarita-c]

So Unoriginal1 you're saying that he would definitely have saved them himself, they couldn't just "appear" there via a message or something without him realising? I'm not going all moral on this, and really don't want to give reasons, I just need the tech, thanks!

 

[unoriginal1]

There's always the possibility. (could have been someone else etc) But the chances are slim to none lets put it that way.
Honestly I'd have to see exactly what kind of files they are, when they were saved, etc to make an educated decision. Not that I'm pushing the subject any further then I'd like but if it's something serious like child porn or something just do your duty and report it to the proper authorities. If it's personal stuff just give it back and act none the wiser.

 

[UrbanMyth]

Lots of programs save thumbnails when viewing - usually to the same location as the originals, or the location of the viewing program.
Implies that the original images were in that location at some time in the past, OR that the program used to VIEW those images is installed on the USB stick...
Either way, they didn't get their by accident.

 

[sarita-c]

Thanks UrbanMyth!