Your photos reveal more than you think.
Every image you take or screenshot you capture is quietly embedded with data about where you were, what device you used, and when. Here's what that means, and how to stop it.
What is photo metadata?
Every digital photo carries two things: the image you see, and a silent passenger of structured data attached to it. This data, stored in standardised formats like EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format), IPTC, and XMP, is written automatically by your phone or camera at the moment you press the shutter. It was designed to help photo software organise and interpret images correctly, but that also means every photo you share carries a detailed record of the moment it was taken.
It isn't visible in the image itself, it's not shown by default in file managers or photo viewers, and it travels with the photo wherever it goes. Anyone looking for it can easily view or extract it in order to identify or track you across the internet or in real life.
Usually that is not a real concern for most people, but in some situations you'd want to sanitise your photos or screenshots before sharing them — that is where you might want to use a tool like StripMeta. Screenshots typically carry a smaller set of metadata (e.g. device model, OS version and a timestamp) — but it is often the combination of data that makes you trackable, not a single piece of information on its own.
Precise latitude, longitude, and altitude at the moment the photo was taken. Sometimes includes direction and speed of travel. Often accurate up to within a few metres.
Device identity
Manufacturer and model name, and for cameras a body serial number — the physical hardware serial that stays the same across every photo the device ever takes, making it possible to link shots from different sources to the same camera.
Timestamps
The exact date and time the photo was captured, and when it was last modified. Some formats also record the local timezone offset.
Software & editing history
The operating system version, camera app, and editing software used, usually including version numbers. Adobe Lightroom, Snapseed, iOS Photos, and others all leave traces.
Camera settings
ISO speed, aperture, shutter speed, focal length, flash state, white balance, metering mode, and lens information — the full technical context of every shot.
Authorship & copyright
Photographer name, copyright string, caption, keywords, and contact details — often added automatically by camera apps or synced from your Apple ID or Google account.
A real example
Here is the kind of metadata embedded in an ordinary photo taken on a modern smartphone:
The GPS coordinates above resolve to the Eiffel Tower. Anyone with this file now knows where you were on your last vacation.
Why it's a privacy problem
Your home address, extracted from photos
A photo taken at home and uploaded to a forum, social media profile, or sent in an email embeds your precise coordinates. Anyone can paste those into a maps app. This has been used to locate people who never disclosed their address.
Serial numbers link your identities
Device serial numbers embedded in EXIF data are unique and permanent. If you post photos under different accounts from the same device, a common serial number can link those identities.
Timestamps build a timeline of your movements
A series of photos with accurate timestamps reveals your daily patterns: when you wake up, where you work, your travel schedule. Combined with GPS, it's a precise movement log.
How StripMeta removes it
Most metadata removal tools send your files to a server. StripMeta never does. All processing runs directly in your browser using the same APIs your device uses — your files stay on your device from start to finish.
Rather than re-encoding images (which would degrade quality), StripMeta performs surgical removal at the binary level for JPEG, PNG, and WebP files. EXIF segments, PNG metadata chunks, and WebP RIFF metadata containers are identified and excised from the file structure directly, leaving the compressed image data completely untouched. The result is an identical-quality image with no metadata. For formats that don't support lossless stripping — such as GIF, TIFF, or AVIF — and when Paranoid mode is enabled in settings, StripMeta falls back to re-encoding through the browser's canvas API, which guarantees complete removal at the cost of a small quality reduction and conversion to JPEG.
Lossless for JPEG, PNG, WebP
Image data is never re-encoded. Only metadata containers are removed.
Zero uploads
No file ever leaves your browser. There is no server to receive it.
Batch processing
Drop an entire folder. All files are processed and zipped for download.
How to use StripMeta
Open StripMeta and add your photos
Go to stripmeta.info. Drag and drop photos directly onto the page, click Select files to pick individual images, or use Open folder to load an entire directory at once. JPEG, PNG, WebP, TIFF, HEIC, and more are all accepted.
Drop photos or folders here
JPEG, PNG, WebP, TIFF, HEIC and more
Review what was found
StripMeta scans each file and shows you what metadata it detected — GPS data, timestamps, device information. Files with no metadata are flagged separately. Click any file to inspect its full metadata before stripping.
vacation.jpg
selfie.jpg
document.png
Strip and download
Click Strip metadata & download. StripMeta processes every file in your browser and triggers an automatic download. Multiple files are packaged as a ZIP archive. The whole operation takes a few seconds even for large batches.
vacation.jpg
selfie.jpg
Your clean files are ready
Your browser downloads the cleaned files immediately. No account, no waiting, no email required. The About panel shows a summary of what was removed — GPS locations, timestamps, and total data stripped — so you can see exactly what was there.
About StripMeta
✕What we did for you
Your images never left your device. All processing happened locally in your browser.
You're done.
Your photos are clean. Nothing was uploaded. Nothing was tracked.
Ready to strip your photos?
No sign-up, no upload, no waiting. Drop your photos in and get clean files back in seconds.
Use StripMeta →Free, open-source, and private by design.
If you found it useful, consider donating
StripMeta is written and maintained by one person, serves no ads, tracks nothing, and costs nothing to use. That also means no ad revenue. If it saved you time or protected your privacy, a small donation goes a long way. You can find the donation links in the About panel — click ℹ️ About or donate in the footer at any time.