Image Privacy Scrubber
See exactly what GPS, camera and timestamp metadata a photo is carrying, then clean it by re-encoding locally in your browser before you share it.
Before (original)
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After (cleaned)
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Why check a photo's metadata before you share it?
What this tool does
Image Privacy Scrubber reads the hidden metadata embedded in a photo — GPS coordinates, camera make and model, lens details, capture timestamp, and the software that produced the file — and displays it in a plain-language table so you can see exactly what a photo reveals before you post or send it. Pick an output format and quality, and the tool re-encodes the image through a canvas, which drops that metadata in the process. A before/after comparison shows file size, dimensions, and a re-scanned metadata status for the cleaned copy, and you can download the result with one click.
Why you need it
Most cameras and phones embed far more into a photo than the pixels you see. GPS tags record the exact coordinates where a picture was taken — down to the street or the room inside a home. Camera and lens model, capture timestamp, and even the editing software used can all be read out of a JPEG or PNG with a two-line script, no special tools required. None of that is visible when you simply look at the image, which is exactly the problem: people share photos assuming they are "just a picture" when the file is quietly carrying a location log.
This matters for anyone posting property listings, marketplace photos, or pictures from home on social media, and especially for journalists, activists, and people in sensitive situations where a GPS tag could reveal a location they need kept private. It also matters for businesses handling user-submitted images that might carry a customer's device details or location without anyone intending to collect that data.
Because everything runs in your browser — reading the metadata and cleaning the file — nothing about the photo or its metadata is ever transmitted anywhere. That is a meaningfully different privacy posture from uploading a photo to a cloud "EXIF remover" that necessarily sees the file, and often the metadata, on its own servers first.
How to use it
- Drop a photo onto the drop zone or upload it — nothing is sent to a server.
- Review the detected metadata table: GPS, camera, timestamp and software fields, if present.
- Pick an output format (JPEG, WebP, or PNG) and, for lossy formats, a quality level.
- Compare the before and after cards — the after-scan confirms whether metadata was actually removed from this specific file.
- Download the cleaned copy and share that file instead of the original.
Practical examples
- Selling an item online: Check a marketplace listing photo for GPS tags before it reveals your home address to strangers.
- Posting from a trip: Strip capture timestamps and location data from vacation photos before sharing them publicly in real time.
- Journalism and activism: Remove GPS and device metadata from a source photo before publishing, to protect a location or a source's device fingerprint.
- Corporate photo intake: Clean user-submitted images before storing them, so customer device and location metadata is not retained unintentionally.
- Screenshots with embedded location: Some phone screenshots inherit metadata from the photo app — verify and clean before sending to a client.
How it works
Reading metadata uses exifr, an open-source parser that runs entirely client-side, to extract EXIF, GPS and IPTC segments directly from the file's bytes without decoding the image itself. GPS coordinates are converted to decimal latitude/longitude for readability, and date fields are formatted using your local time settings.
Cleaning works differently: the original image is drawn onto an HTML canvas at full resolution, then re-encoded from scratch using canvas.toBlob() in your chosen format. Because the output is rebuilt purely from pixel data, the EXIF, GPS and most IPTC segments that lived in the original file's byte structure are not carried over — they simply have nowhere to go in the new file. This is why the method is reliable without needing a dedicated "metadata stripper" library. After cleaning, the tool re-runs the same exifr scan on the new file and reports the real result rather than assuming success, which is also how it can honestly flag the rare edge cases where a browser still writes back a color-profile chunk.
Common mistakes
- Assuming a screenshot has no metadata: Some capture and editing apps still embed software tags or timestamps — always check first.
- Sharing the original "just this once": If GPS data was present, the original file keeps it forever, even if you later delete the post.
- Treating this as a forensic-grade wipe: For a highly sensitive situation, cross-check with your OS's own metadata tools as well.
- Choosing PNG for a large photo: PNG is lossless and can produce a much larger file than JPEG or WebP for photographic content — pick JPEG/WebP unless you specifically need transparency.
- Skipping the after-scan: The after panel's status is the actual verification — don't assume metadata is gone just because you picked "clean."
FAQ
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. Metadata reading and cleaning both run locally in your browser using the exifr library and the Canvas API — the file never leaves your device.
Does this guarantee every trace of metadata is gone?
No. Re-encoding through canvas removes EXIF, IPTC and GPS reliably in the vast majority of cases, but this is not a forensic-grade wipe. The After panel re-scans the cleaned file and tells you honestly whether anything was still detected.
Which output format should I pick?
JPEG or WebP for photos — both re-encode the pixel data and drop metadata. PNG also works and stays lossless, though some textual chunks can behave differently across browsers.
Why does the cleaned file sometimes still show a warning?
Canvas re-encoding rebuilds the image from raw pixels, but some browsers still write embedded color profile data. If the after-scan flags anything, it is disclosed rather than hidden.
What kind of metadata does it check for?
GPS coordinates, camera make and model, lens information, capture date/time, and the software tag — the fields most likely to reveal location or device details.