Guides
Metadata, explained properly.
What is hidden in your files, who can read it, and what to do about it.
Reference
- AnswersOne question per page, each with the direct answer in the first line — GPS accuracy, screenshots, AI images, video.
- GlossaryEvery term defined on its own page: EXIF, IPTC, XMP, maker notes, content credentials, chunks and boxes.
- What is EXIF metadata?EXIF, IPTC and XMP explained without jargon — what each records and what it gives away.
- C2PA content credentialsWhat Content Credentials are, where they hide, and what removing them does and does not achieve.
- How lossless removal worksContainer surgery per format, why we never re-encode, and how every result is verified.
- Format referenceWhere each of the nine supported formats stores its metadata, and how each is handled.
- ChatGPT image metadataWhat ChatGPT, DALL·E and Sora embed in every image they produce, and what removing it means.
Articles
- AI & provenance
What triggers the Instagram AI info label
Meta labels AI content from signals in the file, signals in the pixels and your own disclosure. Only the first of those is metadata.
- AI & provenance
SynthID vs C2PA: what metadata removal can and cannot touch
C2PA is a signed label stored in the file. SynthID is a signal woven into the pixels. Any metadata tool removes the first; none of them touch the second.
- Privacy
How to remove EXIF data and location on iPhone & iPad
Step-by-step guide to removing photo metadata and GPS coordinates on iOS, using built-in Photos settings, Shortcuts, and private browser tools.
- Technical
How to remove EXIF metadata on Mac and Windows
A comparison of built-in desktop tools — macOS Preview, Windows File Properties — and how to strip image metadata losslessly without quality loss.
- Privacy
How to remove photo metadata and location on Android
How to strip EXIF, camera info and GPS coordinates from photos on Samsung and Google Pixel phones before sharing.
- Privacy
How to check whether a metadata remover uploaded your photo
Most online metadata tools send your file to a server. You can prove which ones in about thirty seconds, with a panel already built into your browser.
- Legal
Is removing metadata illegal?
Stripping metadata from your own photo is legal almost everywhere. The exceptions are narrow, specific, and worth knowing before you hit remove.
- Technical
Lossless vs re-encoded metadata removal, measured
Most online metadata removers re-compress your photo. Here is what that costs, how to tell whether a tool did it to you, and how to check for yourself.
- Privacy
What a single photo tells a stranger
A walk through the metadata in one ordinary phone photo, field by field, and what each one gives away.
- Platforms
Why 'Instagram strips EXIF anyway' misses the point
Platforms strip metadata from the copy others can download. That protects less than it sounds, and the exceptions are where real leaks happen.
Does this platform strip EXIF?
Questions with a page of their own
- Do photos sent in direct messages keep their EXIF data?Frequently yes. Direct messages follow a different code path from public posts, and the attachment or document modes exist precisely to deliver a file untouched.
- Why remove metadata from photos?Because the file carries more than the picture: where it was taken, what took it, and when. All of it travels with the photo wherever you send it.