What EXIF and image metadata are
When a camera or phone saves a photo it writes a block of structured data into the file alongside the pixels. In JPEG this lives in an APP1 segment as an Exif TIFF structure; in PNG it is spread across the IHDR header and optional tEXt / iTXt text chunks. The data is not encrypted or hidden — any program that knows the format can read it, which is exactly what this page does.
The Exif TIFF block is organised into image file directories (IFDs). IFD0 holds general image tags, a pointer leads to the Exif IFD with the shooting parameters, and another pointer leads to the GPS IFD with location. Values can be stored little-endian (II, Intel) or big-endian (MM, Motorola); this parser handles both.
What each field tells you
| Field | What it reveals |
|---|---|
| Make / Model | The exact camera or phone, e.g. Apple iPhone 15 Pro. Often enough to identify the owner's device across many photos. |
| Lens Model | The lens or camera module used for the shot. |
Date Taken (DateTimeOriginal) | The moment the shutter fired, to the second. Not the file's modified date. |
| Exposure, F-number, ISO, Focal length | How the shot was exposed. Useful for learning photography; harmless for privacy. |
| Orientation | How the viewer should rotate the image (1–8) so it displays upright. |
| GPS Latitude / Longitude | Where the photo was taken, typically accurate to a few metres. This can expose a home, a workplace, or a routine. |
| Software | The OS build or editing app that last wrote the file. |
Colour profile (ColorSpace, ICC, sRGB, gAMA) | How colours should be interpreted. Matters for accurate display and print, not privacy. |
Photos and location privacy
The privacy risk in a photo is almost always the GPS coordinates. The other tags describe a camera; the GPS IFD describes you.
- Most social networks strip EXIF on upload — Instagram, Facebook, X and Reddit re-encode images and drop the metadata. A photo you post there is generally clean.
- Files shared directly keep everything. An original sent as an email attachment, over a chat app's “send as file / document” option, through AirDrop, or via a cloud storage link is the untouched camera file, GPS included.
- Messaging apps vary. Sending a photo “as a photo” usually recompresses and strips it; sending the same photo “as a file” preserves it.
To remove metadata, re-encode the image so only the pixels survive. This page's Download stripped copy button does that by drawing the image onto a <canvas> and exporting a new file — the canvas has no way to carry EXIF, XMP, or GPS, so the output has none. The visible content, including any rotation from the Orientation tag, is preserved.
Questions
Does this upload my photo anywhere?
No. The file is read as an ArrayBuffer and parsed in your browser; the stripped copy is built locally with a canvas. Nothing is sent to a server.
Why do some photos have no EXIF data?
Screenshots, images saved from web pages, editor exports, and photos re-encoded by chat apps arrive without camera EXIF. A PNG screen capture never had camera or GPS data to begin with, and some platforms strip EXIF on upload.
Does taking a screenshot of a photo remove its metadata?
Yes. A screenshot is a fresh image made from on-screen pixels, so it carries none of the original's camera EXIF or GPS. It only records the device and time of the screenshot itself.
What is the Orientation tag?
A value from 1 to 8 that tells a viewer how to rotate or mirror the image so it looks upright, without changing pixels. Stripping metadata bakes the rotation in and drops the tag.
Does this read C2PA / Content Credentials?
No. C2PA is a separate signed-provenance standard used by some cameras and AI tools. This tool reads EXIF, XMP and PNG text chunks. Re-encoding through a canvas usually drops a C2PA manifest as a side effect.