Image metadata checker: see what your photo knows about you

What metadata is, without the drama

Every photo file has room for information about itself: what took it, when, which settings were used, sometimes where it was standing at the time. It is called EXIF data, cameras and phones write it automatically, and most of it is dull. The parts worth caring about are the location, and any field carrying a name.

The honest position on this is somewhere between the two things you usually hear. It is not true that your photos are quietly broadcasting your address to everyone who sees them, because the platforms strip this data on upload and have done for years. It is also not true that it never matters, because the moment you send an original file directly, by email, in a message, through a file host, or to a customer buying a custom, you are sending everything the file knows.

What is actually risky

• •GPS coordinates. The one worth removing. It tells someone where a photo was taken, which is a problem if that is your home or somewhere you go every week, and much less of one for a one-off location.
• •Author and copyright fields. Editing software sometimes writes the name from your computer account into these. If that is your legal name, it travels with the file.
• •Camera make and model. Harmless alone, but it links separate photos to the same device, which can connect a creator account to a personal one.
• •Timestamps. Rarely a problem, occasionally awkward if you would rather not confirm exactly when you were somewhere.

When a clean result is the normal result

If this tool tells you it found nothing, that is almost certainly correct rather than a failure. Sharing a photo through Instagram, WhatsApp, X, or your phone's share sheet generally strips metadata along the way. The files most likely to still carry it are the ones that came straight off a camera or were exported from editing software.

The tool will also tell you plainly when it cannot read a file, rather than reporting a clean bill of health it cannot stand behind. An all-clear you cannot trust is worse than no answer at all.

Why this runs in your browser

A privacy tool that asks you to upload your photo to a stranger's server to check whether it is private is a joke with the punchline missing. This one reads the file in your own browser using JavaScript, works out what is in it there, and offers you a stripped copy generated on your own machine. Nothing is transmitted, so there is nothing for us to store, leak or be compelled to hand over. If you would rather verify that than believe it, open your browser's network tools and watch while you use the page.

The same principle runs through everything we build. Our guide to staying anonymous as a creator covers the wider version: separating identities, what your payment details reveal, and the mistakes that are hard to undo.