Photo privacy: what to check before you post

A photo can reveal its location in two ways: what is visible in the picture, and the information stored inside the file. Removing metadata addresses the second layer. The first still needs your attention.

Look for location and device information

Phone and camera photos may carry EXIF fields for GPS coordinates, capture time, device model or camera serial number. JPEG files can also contain IPTC captions and XMP editing history. Screenshots and generated images can carry text tags even when they have no camera EXIF.

Clean a copy

Select your JPG, PNG or WebP on the cleaner. Check the report and save the cleaned version. The tool removes supported metadata blocks without re-encoding the image. JPEG rotation and color profiles can remain so the picture displays correctly.

AI prompts are another kind of tag

Generated PNG images sometimes contain text fields with a prompt or workflow description. Removing PNG text chunks can remove those fields. It does not erase visual watermarks or guarantee that the image’s origin cannot be inferred.

Check the photo itself

Street signs, documents on a desk, vehicle plates and reflections can identify people or places. Rename a revealing filename, inspect the cleaned image and use a separate image editor if content needs to be redacted.

When the cleaner declines a file

Some PNG and WebP files use EXIF rotation. rmmetadata rejects these structures instead of silently changing their orientation. Export a correctly oriented copy from a trusted editor, then clean that copy.