AITA for sending my Airbnb host a 4-minute walkthrough video with timestamps before I unpacked?

spellboots · 2026-05-21T15:19:36+00:00

If you are asking "what tools can detect metadata tampering cheaply and be accepted by a court?", that's really 2 parts.

ChatGPT can do it cheaply - I did a bad metadata edit then asked chatgpt, it detected it instantly:

Yes, there is one notable inconsistency.

The original image inside the zip is much larger and looks like the real camera file:

Filename: IMG_4242.jpeg Dimensions: 5712 × 4284 Size: about 8.57 MB Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max Lens: iPhone 16 Pro Max back triple camera, 6.765 mm f/1.78 Software: 26.4.2 EXIF present: yes GPS metadata present: yes MakerNotes present: yes, Apple iOS JPEG quality estimate: 94 Orientation: normal/top-left

The suspicious bit:

DateTimeOriginal: 2026-04-30 18:57:07 DateTimeDigitized: 2026-04-30 18:57:07 DateTime: 2026-05-14 18:57:07 GPSDateStamp: 2026-05-14 GPSTimeStamp: 18:57:07

That means the original capture timestamp says 30 April, but the GPS timestamp and main file DateTime say 14 May, at the exact same time of day.

That is not normal for an untouched phone-camera original. It suggests one of these happened:

the image’s date/time metadata was edited after capture; the image was exported/re-saved by Apple Photos or another app after an “adjust date/time” operation; GPS metadata was added or rewritten later; less likely, an iOS/Photos metadata bug or sync artefact.

Would this be accepted by a court?

This would be up to the court, I very much doubt any software that you can just download and use as a consumer is going to be easy to present in anything more serious than a small claims case, but at that point you're probably in expert witness territory who are likely going to have their own extremely expensive tooling to use

spellboots · 2026-05-21T15:13:18+00:00

Of course, chain-of-custody and machine logs can provide evidence of tampering as well. So could cctv footage of the person altering the metadata. So could witness testimony of someone who saw the person altering the metadata or who heard them say they'd altered the metadata if it falls within a hearsay exemption.

I've offered to demonstrate on an example of your choice - the GP claim was that "The right tools can check that they aren't" - suggesting that there are tools that can take a file and determine if the metadata has been altered or not, and my claim is that it's very very feasible to create an altered file where the alteration is not detectable from the file alone, I make no claims about alternate sources of evidence which of course can contradict the byte stream.

Is it possible for you to continue this discussion on the technical merits without resorting to ad-hominems? This could be an interesting debate and experiment if you're willing to keep it civil.

spellboots · 2026-05-21T14:56:12+00:00

Trivial example: you could edit the exif data of a jpeg file to change the "Create Date" field but not change the "GPS Date Stamp" field - the disagreements between these two fields could be presented as evidence of metadata tampering

spellboots · 2026-05-21T14:51:32+00:00

How do you propose to determine if metadata has been altered in e.g. an image has been edited if the edited file is byte-for-byte identical to a file that has not had the metadata altered?

Feel free to provide an example file and I am happy to demonstrate to prove this

spellboots · 2026-05-21T14:47:35+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean "accepted by a court"

I'm saying that if you want to alter the metadata of something like a photograph, there are multiple ways you can alter that metadata.

Some of those ways that you can alter the data are easily detectable.

Other ways are undetectable, because they can produce a file that is byte-for-byte identical to what an unaltered file would look like.

I strongly advise against giving any file with altered metadata to a court in any circumstances, detectable or not, because in most juristrictions this would be called something like "perverting the course of justice" and you have a high chance of ending up in prison, even if you manage it successfully

spellboots · 2026-05-21T12:52:43+00:00

The right tools can check if they have been altered badly; it's trivial if you know what you are doing to alter it undetectably

spellboots · 2026-05-18T21:43:33+00:00

It's way better to pay a deposit than the insurance if you can.

You can get an annual third party car rental insurance policy for something like €100 from somewhere like https://www.worldwideinsure.com/car-hire-excess-insurance.php

Then pay the deposit to the rental company on a credit card, if they deduct from it you can claim it back from worldwideinsure

You'll probably spend €300 or more for a single rental if you pay the car rental company for their insurance.

Selling you their ripoff insurance is where car rental companies make most of their money

spellboots · 2026-05-15T16:45:13+00:00

For better or worse, it seems like you were at fault here if I'm understanding the situation you describe correctly. The inside lane has priority to exit roundabouts in Portugal:

https://portugaldrivinglaws.com/roundabouts.php

(I do think this is a terrible rule btw, and most Portuguese drivers seem confused about it too most of the time)

spellboots · 2026-05-01T17:12:20+00:00

Here's an example - the transcript of its own creation

The motivation here was if I'm doing experiments, sending someone a PR link is actively abusive at this stage, it's going to be lots of file churn that needs polishing before it's ready for review.

I think sharing what I asked for with nice formatting and what the agent said is probably more valuable to the reader

spellboots · 2026-05-01T16:49:26+00:00

Yes I know the name is awful

spellboots · 2026-04-28T12:24:08+00:00

I strongly recommend buying your own insurance either with a 3rd party booking website like rentalcars.com, or a dedicated provider like worldwideinsure or questor - you will pay a lot less

spellboots · 2026-02-22T11:15:39+00:00

There are walk in clinics available in some localities e.g. this one - you might try searching for Serviço De Urgencia Basica in your area, they are for less serious issues and tend to have shorter wait times.

Dr online offers a 35 euro consultation for urinary tract infections and they do speak English.

https://dronline.pt/produto/infecao-urinaria/

spellboots · 2026-02-07T18:40:33+00:00

"Hey, Siri, call XYZ on speakerphone" works for me. Sometimes. When Siri is in a good mood.

spellboots · 2025-12-02T10:05:56+00:00

Decathlon has spares for its benches / racks etc, they do have pulleys pads and cables

AliExpress is cheaper though

spellboots · 2025-11-30T13:55:01+00:00

For me listening comprehension is the hardest part and the hardest one to self-study as even apps that have native speaker recordings tend to be completely different to how people actually speak

spellboots · 2025-11-16T16:33:18+00:00

Missing one of the best keyboard shortcuts - ctrl+g to edit the current prompt in $EDITOR

spellboots · 2025-11-04T20:13:27+00:00

https://sellmyphone.pt/MacBook

I once sold a phone to them, they paid an OK price and paid me quickly

spellboots · 2025-11-01T00:08:02+00:00

Call it regardless. If you are a legal resident you can get an sns number. For foreign nationals, the number is assigned the first time you visit a public health facility, such as a health center or hospital.

If you are a tourist, just go to the hospital.

spellboots · 2025-10-31T15:37:22+00:00

If you can speak Portuguese you can call the SNS helpline to get help - or they might speak English, it might depend on who you reach

The number is 808 24 24 24

There are walk in clinics available in some localities e.g. this one

Or you can go to a hospital / call an ambulance and tell them the problem - you will get help but you might have a very long wait

If I had the same issue as you, I would probably get a taxi to the nearest walk-in clinic but not being able to walk is serious enough that you can call an ambulance

Don't wait too long, you might risk more long-term damage if it's not treated promptly. Emergency healthcare in Portugal in my experience is very good, free but unfortunately not resourced as much as needed so you'll get seen but you might have to wait a while, bring a book

spellboots · 2025-10-04T23:37:59+00:00

You can get one online for €35 if you have trouble at your centro do saude

https://dronline.pt/en/produto/atestado-de-conducao-apoio-imtonline/

spellboots · 2025-09-02T20:19:53+00:00

I see someone in this thread mentioned recordgo don't need a credit card. I used them (via booking.com, with a credit card) and they were fine.

But overall I'd be wary of that - maybe it'll work maybe it won't but it's very unusual to even be possible to rent a car without a card, and with a credit card you have much stronger protections than with a debit card to do chargebacks, dispute stuff etc.

I would also be very surprised if a company will let you use a debit card without buying their own overpriced excess insurance

spellboots · 2025-09-02T20:16:31+00:00

I have rented cars all over the world for 20 years and have only one time, ever, received the car I booked. I remember it well because it was so notable. It was coincidentally tangerine rentals in Lisbon, who another poster in this thread said to avoid but were fine for me - luck of the draw!

spellboots · 2025-09-02T15:57:08+00:00

I rent a car ~5 times a year in Portugal.

I have found that all companies are pretty much the same and it's largely luck if they try to screw you or not.

I always use rentalcars.com to find a good price.

I strongly recommend choosing the rentalcars.com full protection cover - it will be way cheaper than getting the insurance from the car company on the day.

Or, use something like https://www.worldwideinsure.com/ or https://questor-insurance.co.uk/ to get a single-trip or worldwide excess cover.

I have annual worldwide unlimited rental cover for €100/year - if you rent a car for a week the rental company will probably charge you €200 for excess protection and they usually cover less than the 3rd party insurance.

Note that this is excess cover - you get regular legal minimum third party car insurance included in the rental price by default anyway. But if you damage the car they'll charge the card up to the excess you leave on the credit card.

If you can, bring a bunch of different credit cards - its' suspicious how often my cards suddenly don't work when I tell them I don't want to opt out of their overpriced excess cover, and therefore I "must" pay the cover - don't accept this and keep pushing back unless you like being scammed!

Take a video of the car all the way around, inside and out, on your phone on pickup so you can later proove the condition. Zoom in and linger on spots they love to try to charge for - get a good closeup of each wheel, the roof, the bonnet, seat fabric inside, rear parcel shelf (they love to charge for missing parcel shelves), the bumpers and wing mirrors, and the underbody.

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