Geotagging could help find missing persons

As cyclones bear down on parts of northern Australia, people are being urged to switch on geotagging on their mobile phones to help emergency services track them down in the case of an emergency.

The warning comes as Cyclone Lam in the NT moves on the coast of the northern Top End and Cyclone Marcia barrels towards Queensland's Capricornia coast.

The function logs the geographical co-ordinates of users' photos when shared on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook and provides a map to lead police to where the photo was uploaded.

Geotagging can also be used to help stay on top of other issues which can arise during severe weather events.

Photos of fires, floods and downed power lines shared online with their metadata will also give emergency services instantaneous information on the problem, and where it's located.