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Your photos might include information of the exact location and time of the photo taken, your photo/camera models etc. Companies, governments, or someone with bad intentions can use such information for their benefits against you. This can easily be accessed by AI as well.

On Windows 11:

  1. Right-click on the file
  2. Properties
  3. Details
  4. Remove properties and personal information

Lots of people don't care, but I guess this could be useful for some of you.

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Alternatively, you can (probably should) decide to not upload any photo to social media.

[-] null@lemmy.nullspace.lol 2 points 2 weeks ago

That would destroy the majority of Lemmy though

[-] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

The data is different for a 'photo' one took vs one of many other types of image. Your camera/phone can often include a lot of surprising data, possibly even your PII or location. An image you made in krita or with a screenshotting tool is somewhat less likely to have such data.

[-] kepix@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

any of you allow gps for your photo app?

[-] qarbone@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Feels like an honorable site would make the uploader aware of this and offer a checkbox or something to do it for you.

[-] themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago

Every site that allows image upload in existence now strips this data by default, but they do it on their server so they can get it first.

[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I mean, I'd probably do it server-side even if I were to have nefarious intent and want the data for myself anyway, since image processing client-side isn't necessarily a good use of your users devices, really.

Plus, if I were to want the data in a client-side, I could upload it before doing the client-side stripping.

This comment doesn't really hold up to scrutiny, my friend

[-] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Every social-media platform strips EXIF metadata before publishing the photo.

So the issue is the trustworthiness of the social-media platform itself. Personally I always strip the metadata before sharing anything anywhere.

[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

Of course they strip it before publishing and of course they use the stripped data for themselves. Anyone assuming that they won't should come and buy that bridge that I'm selling, it's a great opportunity!

[-] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago

Strips metadata so that the public can't see it, isn't the same as stripping metadata after the corporation has already collected and linked it to your profile. 😫

Always clean the metadata BEFORE it touches their upload UI.

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

You guys are uploading personal photos to social media?!

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 2 points 2 weeks ago

Linux:

exiftool -overwrite_original -all= ~/Downloads/your_photo.jpg
[-] irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

Most sites strip metadata thankfully.

[-] iglou@programming.dev 3 points 2 weeks ago

Yes, but the company could still keep the data somewhere.

[-] irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 2 weeks ago

True, but I was thinking of this as someone else viewing the photo seeing the metadata.

[-] Shayeta@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago

If they pay a data broker the company is partnered with - they can.

[-] dan1101@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I run it through my 1995-era photo editor that doesn't support all the metadata.

[-] MidsizedSedan@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

I was at a restaurant earlier this year, and I actually saw someone take a picture of their food, screen shot that picture, and send it on their messaging app of choice. Was so cool seeing it happen in person in my tiny town, and not just in the big cities or the internet

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago

ehhh

Screenshot

Paste Screenshot

Works on all platforms

Apple puts a little exif data in there, but it's not very useful data.

[-] DBT@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

For iPhone you can make a simple shortcut to do this. Here’s what it would look like:

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

For Android, there are e.g.

[-] seathru@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

For linux I use exiftool

exiftool -all= image.jpg

[-] backgroundcow@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I discovered that recent versions of the built-in photo apps on Android flat out refuses to do this. The UI for removing location info is there, but it is intentionally blocked if the exif info was added automatically by GPS (i.e., it only works if you manually have set a location). It seems so weird, and outright evil, to block one of the key ways for people to stay safe.

this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2025
31 points (100.0% liked)

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