D.C. seems to be more of a dog-friendly town, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of cat owners hiding out in your apartment building. Actually thanks to website, I Know Where Your Cat Lives, they aren't really hiding at all. This website has found and aggregated photos using the tag "cat" that were used on public photo-sharing sites like Instagram and Flickr that allow users to note their location. Then all of those photos have been placed on a Google map with a margin of error of 7.8 meters. If that sounds creepy as all get out, it should. Website founder Owen Mundy reveals on the website's Kickstarter that at least part of the M.O behind the site's creation is to explore the utter lack of privacy on today's Internet and how everyone from startups to major corporation are utilizing that location-aware data usage for their own gain and profit. Yeesh.
Then again, the other, less terrifying reason for the website is to poke fun at the proliferation of cat photos on the World Wide Web with adorable results. The map shows that 2475 cats have been photographed in the District proper. This isn't as many as have shown up in particularly cat-friendly cities like New York, Chicago or LA, but it is more than have appeared in West Virginia, North Dakota, Montana or any neighboring suburban region of Maryland or Virginia. It also shows that the District's big cat havens are Glover Park and the area that encompasses Shaw, Logan Circle and Mt. Vernon Square. Then again, since photos tagged "Cat" might also include women named Cat or cat-like poses, this site isn't perfect. Also, disgruntled users who have unwittingly found their cat's photo on this site can request its removal. (H/T Curbed LA)
· I Know Where Your Cat Lives [Official Site]
· Cat-Stalking Maps [Trendhunter]
· Finally: A Map of All the Cat Photographs in Los Angeles [Curbed LA]
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