Tags—
Identifying—
Location—
Stripped—
Read the EXIF, IPTC, and XMP tags hidden inside a photo — and see straight away which of them identify you. Tags are sorted into location, ownership, camera, timestamp, and image groups, the identifying ones are marked, and one click exports a copy of the picture with every tag removed.
Step by step
01Add the file
Drop in the photograph. Every embedded block your browser can reach is parsed on your own machine — location, ownership, camera, timestamps, image properties, and the rest.
02Read the identifying tags first
The switch for identifying tags only hides camera settings and image properties, leaving what actually exposes you: where the picture was taken, who owns the device, and when the shutter fired.
03Check the coordinates if there are any
GPS tags are reported to six decimal places, which is roughly a tenth of a metre. If that field has a value, the file names the place it was taken to within a doorway.
04Export a stripped copy
The clean copy is redrawn from raw pixels through a canvas, so no metadata segment survives into the new file — including tags this tool never displayed.
Worked example
A typical unedited camera-roll JPEG, grouped the way the tool groups it. The first three groups are the ones that identify a person, a device, or a moment.
Given
Tag groups, most identifying first
Location latitude, longitude, altitude
-> 6 decimal places is doorway-level
Ownership artist, copyright, body serial number
-> ties every photo to one camera
Timestamps shutter time, last written
-> when you were at that location
Camera make, model, lens, ISO, aperture
Image dimensions, orientation, colour spaceLocation plus timestamp plus a device serial number is a pattern of life, not a photograph: several images from one camera place a person at particular addresses at particular times. Renaming the file, cropping it, or posting it to a service that happens to strip tags does not change what is in the copy you emailed — only re-encoding the pixels does.
Before you share the file
Location is the tag that matters
GPS coordinates recorded to six decimal places identify a specific doorway, not a neighbourhood. A photograph taken at home and posted anywhere carries that address until somebody removes it, and nothing in the picture has to show a street sign.
Serial numbers link photographs to each other
Body and lens serial numbers are stable across every file a camera produces. That makes them provenance if you want it, and a correlation key if you do not: two anonymous images from the same body are provably the same photographer.
Timestamps are the other half of location
Coordinates say where, the shutter time says when, and the pair says who was somewhere at a given moment. Both survive copying, renaming, and most editing — they travel with the file, not with the filename.
Some platforms strip, some do not, and it changes
Major social networks generally remove EXIF on upload; messaging apps, email attachments, cloud file shares, and direct downloads generally do not. Assuming the recipient's platform will clean up for you is how location data gets published.
Stripping means re-encoding, not deleting fields
The clean copy is redrawn from decoded pixels, so the output has no metadata segment at all — not a blanked one. That removes tags this tool never showed you, and it also means the copy is a fresh encode rather than your original file minus a header.
The file never leaves your browser
Parsing and stripping both run locally, which is the only sane arrangement for a tool whose whole subject is data you do not want disclosed. Nothing is uploaded, logged, or retained.
The judgement call
Metadata is evidence, provenance, and exposure at the same time. Which one depends on where the file is going.
Posting a photo taken at home
Strip
GPS tags name the address to within a doorway. This is the case that actually harms people.
Sending an image to someone you do not know
Strip
Email and messaging generally preserve tags. The recipient gets the camera, the time, and the place.
Publishing a photo of someone else
Strip
The exposure is not yours to accept — the coordinates locate the subject as much as the photographer.
Submitting to a photo contest or a stock library
Keep
Camera and exposure data is provenance, and many submissions are rejected without it.
Archiving your own originals
Keep
The tags are what let you sort by date, lens, and location years later. Strip the copies you send, not the archive.
Filing an insurance or evidence photo
Keep
Timestamp and location are precisely the value. Stripping them weakens the claim.
Reference
FAQ
Drop the photo in. If it carries coordinates, a Location group appears marked in red and the latitude and longitude are printed at the top of the report. If no such group appears, the file has no GPS tags at all — nothing to remove.
Use the stripped-image download. The picture is redrawn from its pixels onto a fresh canvas and re-encoded, which produces a file with no EXIF, IPTC, or XMP block of any kind. The image itself is unchanged in size and dimensions; only the hidden data is gone.
EXIF is a block of tags cameras and phones write into image files: shutter speed, aperture, ISO, lens, camera model, timestamps, and often GPS coordinates. Most of it is harmless provenance. The problem is that it travels with the file — posting a picture taken at home can publish that address, and the camera serial number links every photo from one body together.
Most large platforms strip EXIF when they re-encode uploads, but the behaviour varies by platform, by upload path, and over time — and none of them strip it from a file you send by email, messaging app, or cloud link. Removing it yourself before sharing is the only thing you control.
Slightly, for a JPEG: the stripped copy is re-encoded at 95% quality, which is visually indistinguishable but not bit-identical to the original. PNG sources are re-encoded losslessly. If you need the original bytes untouched, keep the original file privately and share only the stripped copy.
JPEG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF, and WebP carry metadata blocks this tool can parse. If a file shows no tags at all, it was probably written by software that discards them — screenshots and images exported from many editors have nothing to find.
The file is parsed and redrawn entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, and the share link carries only the view setting — never the file or its tags.
Keep going
Image compressor
Reduce the file size of the cleaned copy before sharing it.
Format converter
Re-encode to another format — which also drops the metadata.
Watermark tool
Add a visible credit in place of the invisible one you removed.
Image resizer
Scale the picture down before publishing it.