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The internet is littered with funny, cute and slightly absurd pictures of cats.

And if you have uploaded an image of your feline on social media, there is a possibility this cat stalking map will be able to find it.

Not only that, but it will be able to pinpoint exactly where you uploaded it, locating your home address, anywhere in the world.

Zoom in on this map to find a cat in your area 

The project was started by data analyst and artist Owen Mundy from Florida who wanted to highlight the risks of putting location data on the photos people take.

Location data is often added to images via the camera itself or an accompanying app, providing details on the latitude and longitude of where the photo was taken. 

Dubbed the 'I know where your cat lives' project, the cat map was built with the help of a supercomputer at Florida State University.

The computer geo-tagged and uploaded a sample of one million photos of cats taken on social media and then plotted them in a zoomable Google Atlas.

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The project was started by data analyst and artist Owen Mundy from Florida who wanted to highlight the risks of putting location data on the photos people take. Pictured is the global view of cats photos around the world

Dubbed the 'I know where your cat lives' project, the cat map was built with the help of a supercomputer at Florida State University.  Pictured is a cat in Hong Kong

The computer geo-tagged and uploaded a sample of one million photos of cats taken on social media and then plotted them in a zoomable Google Atlas. This image shows data from the south east of England

Currently, there are 15 million images tagged with the word 'cat' on public image hosting sites, and daily thousands more are uploaded from unlimited positions on the globe.

Professor Mundy used photos that were tagged 'cat' from Flickr, Instagram, and several other image hosting sites, then he scrubbed the metadata from it.

This means that the results you see on the map are anonymous, and there is no way of identifying the original account it came from.

'With an estimated 7.8 metres accuracy, if you took a photo of your cat in your home you might find it near that location on the map,' Professor Mundy said.

The map can zoom into a specific location, providing generalised data as to how many cats are in that area.

Zooming in further allows the viewer to see what cats lurk in that area, down to street level.

Meanwhile, a 'random cat' button, allows the user to look at images of individual cats throughout the world.

He added that if anyone sees a picture of themselves that they don't want up there, he will immediately take it down.

Currently, there are 15 million images tagged with the word 'cat' on public image hosting sites, and daily thousands more are uploaded from positions on the globe

Professor Mundy used photos that were tagged 'cat' from Flickr, Instagram, and several other image hosting sites, then he scrubbed the metadata from it. Pictured here are streets in New york 

Cat data for parts of the United States. The map can zoom into a specific location, providing generalised data as to how many cats are in that area

But, he adds, so far the reaction has been the opposite.

'The default seems to be there's less privacy, this kind of commercial culture that makes everything on the internet open,' Professor Mundy told Colin Gorenstein at Mashable.

'I think it's logical to do something like this. Privacy is an ongoing, changing thing, and I hope this becomes part of the conversation.'

Professor Mundy came up with the idea when he was using Instagram to photograph his three-year-old.

One day he realised that the app had been recording the exact coordinates of his home for the world to see.

The professor has now created a Kickstarter to raise funds for hosting the site.

He explains the project 'explores two uses of the Internet: the sociable and humorous appreciation of domesticated felines, and the status quo of personal data usage by start-ups and international megacorps who are riding the wave of decreased privacy for all.

'This website doesn't visualise all of the cats on the net, only the ones that allow you to track where their owners have been.'

The map can zoom into a specific location, providing generalised data as to how many cats are in that area. Zooming in further allows the viewer to see what cats lurk in that area, down to street level. Pictured is a cat in the Kameda District of Japan

The professor has now created a Kickstarter to raise funds for hosting the site.He explains the project 'explores two uses of the Internet: the sociable and humorous appreciation of domesticated felines, and the status quo of personal data usage by start-ups and international megacorps who are riding the wave of decreased privacy for all'

There are still some issues with the site. For instance, the map suggests there are 61 cats in the South Pacific Ocean (pictured to the left). 'This website doesn't visualise all of the cats on the net, only the ones that allow you to track where their owners have been,' Professor Mundy said