Remove EXIF (and Your Location) Before Sharing Photos
A phone photo is a small database: 26 fields we counted, including GPS coordinates precise to a few meters, your altitude, and your software version. Here's the 2-minute routine to share photos, not data — with the measured evidence of what actually strips it.
What One Photo Reveals
From our EXIF study: device make and model, OS version, lens, both timestamps, exposure settings — and the GPS block: latitude, longitude (to ~3 meters), altitude, and the UTC time. Anyone who has the original file can read all of it with free tools.
The kicker: this metadata costs 0.6 KB — there is no trade-off argument for keeping it in a shared photo.
What Actually Removes It (measured)
We tested seven common operations; six stripped everything:
- Any decode-and-re-encode — browser tools, converters, compressors: all metadata gone. No special privacy mode needed.
- Format conversion (JPEG→PNG/WebP or WebP→JPEG): stripped.
- Re-save with "copy metadata" enabled in desktop software: everything survives — the one trap.
The exceptions to watch are transfers that don't process the image at all: email attachments, "original quality" cloud uploads, file-sender links, AirDrop. Those deliver the file byte-for-byte — metadata included. Messaging apps and social networks usually re-encode (which strips it), but you're trusting their pipeline.
The 2-Minute Routine
- Check — open the Image Info tool, drop the photo in. It reads metadata locally; nothing uploads. See what a recipient would see.
- Strip — run the photo through the Format Conversion tool (JPEG→JPEG at quality 80, or any format change). Re-encoding removes the whole EXIF block, measured.
- Verify — check the converted file in Image Info again. The metadata table should be empty.
That's it. Three steps, both tools work entirely in your browser — the private photo never leaves your device, which you can verify in 30 seconds with your DevTools network tab (we showed exactly how in our network study).