Photo privacy
Remove EXIF Data From a Photo
Remove EXIF data from a photo before you post, print, or send it — every JPEG straight off a phone or camera can carry your exact GPS coordinates, device model, and the precise moment it was taken.
Drop a file here, click to browse, or paste
What is EXIF data, and why strip it?
EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is a block of metadata that cameras and phones embed directly inside a photo file at the moment it's captured. It typically includes the camera or phone model, lens and exposure settings, the exact date and time, an orientation flag, and — most sensitive of all — GPS coordinates if location services were enabled. None of this is visible when you simply look at the image, but it travels with the file wherever it goes: email attachments, cloud backups, and any website that doesn't explicitly strip it on upload.
The concrete risk is straightforward. A parent posting a photo of their child in front of their house, a journalist sharing a photo from a sensitive location, or a seller listing an item for sale online can all unintentionally publish their home address as GPS coordinates buried in the file. Someone who downloads the original photo and opens it in any EXIF viewer, including this one, can read that location in seconds.
How the removal works
When you drop a photo into the tool above, Metapeek first parses and displays every metadata field it finds, grouped by category (EXIF, GPS, XMP, IPTC, ICC), so you can see exactly what would be exposed. Clicking "Remove all metadata" then rewrites the file in memory — for JPEG files, this means excising the metadata segment while leaving the compressed image data byte-for-byte identical — and offers the cleaned copy as an immediate download. At no point does the original file get transmitted anywhere; the entire read-and-rewrite happens inside your browser tab using JavaScript running locally.
This matters for two reasons beyond the obvious privacy one. First, sites that route your photo through their server to strip metadata are, ironically, the same sites with the technical ability to log or retain the original file before stripping anything. Second, a local, client-side approach also means the tool works even on a spotty connection or, once the page is cached, without any connection at all — the parsing and rewriting logic doesn't depend on a round trip to a server.
Frequently asked questions
No. EXIF data lives in a separate metadata segment from the actual pixel data, so removing it does not touch the image itself. For JPEG files, Metapeek strips only the metadata segment and leaves the compressed image data untouched, meaning visual quality is identical before and after.