How to remove your location (and other hidden data) from a photo

What is hidden in a photo

Cameras and phones write extra information into the image file. It is called metadata, and the most common kind is EXIF. Depending on your settings it can include:

• the GPS location where the photo was taken, if location was switched on for the camera;
• the date and time, and sometimes the time zone;
• the make and model of the phone or camera, and the settings used;
• editing software, and in some files an author name or a caption added by an app.

Why it matters

A picture taken at home with location on can point to your address. A photo of an item you are selling can show where you live or when you are away. Some apps and sites strip this data when you upload, and others don’t. It is rarely made clear which is which, so the safe habit is to clean the file yourself before you send it.

Step 1: see what your photo contains

Open Image Metadata Viewer and add a photo. It lists every tag in the file, highlights the ones that are sensitive for privacy, and can export the list as TXT, JSON or CSV. It reads the file on your device, so the picture isn’t uploaded.

Step 2: remove it

1. Open Image Metadata Remover and add one photo or a whole batch.
2. By default it removes everything that isn’t part of the picture: EXIF, GPS, IPTC and XMP records and text notes.
3. If you only want to drop the location, open “Choose what to remove” and untick everything except GPS.
4. Download the cleaned files. A batch comes as one ZIP.

Two details are kept on purpose. The colour profile stays so colours look the same, and the rotation flag stays so phone photos don’t turn sideways. The picture data is copied byte for byte, so there is no re-compression and no quality loss.

Step 3: check the result

Drop the cleaned photo into the viewer again. The sensitive tags should be gone. It takes ten seconds and removes any doubt.

Stop it at the source

Most phones let you switch off location for the camera app. Doing that means new photos never get a GPS tag in the first place. You can still turn it on for trips where you want it.