Photo sharing and privacy: a practical checklist

A photo file may contain a capture date, camera information, description or author name. GPS fields may let a recipient read a stored location. That can be unwanted when a photo shows your home, workplace or somewhere you visit regularly.

Our checker shows which recognizable data is present in the selected copy. When a location is found, also read what GPS coordinates do and do not prove. They do not establish your current whereabouts.

Look at the photo as if you were the recipient. Zoom into the background and edges too. Look for:

• A house number, street name, number plate or recognizable route.
• Mail, a parcel label, access pass or document on a table.
• A screen displaying a name, appointment, QR code or customer information.
• Faces, school logos, work uniforms and other identifying details.
• A reflection in glass, a monitor or a shiny object.

Removing metadata does not change the visible image. Cropping or carefully covering details may be necessary. Check the saved result again, including on small screens.

Keep the original, make a sharing copy, inspect its metadata, then check the image itself. Give the copy an appropriate filename too. A name can contain sensitive information independently of EXIF.

An app may resize or convert a photo, or handle metadata differently. Do not assume every messaging or social platform removes everything. Where possible, inspect the copy actually being sent. Our guide to removal helps with those checks.

For a JPEG copy, choose which data to remove. Want to share camera settings without location or author details? Keep location and name checked, and uncheck camera and lens. Remember that camera models and capture dates may reveal information about you too.

Pay particular attention to the recheck section Preserved: do you really want the recipient to be able to read this data? Not fully checked means we cannot establish everything about that kind of information. Finding no data is no guarantee of anonymity. The guide to selective removal helps you choose.

Our checker does not analyze faces, addresses or landmarks in the image. It does not establish someone’s identity, whether a photo is authentic or whether an image was AI-generated. We do not declare photos “safe to share”.

We help you understand one aspect: data readable from the chosen file. What happens to your shared photo also depends on the recipient and the platform used.

We offer separate tools to crop a photo or resize it. For example, keep a landmark outside the crop. Inspect the entire crop and output before downloading. Small photos are not automatically anonymous.

With Content Credentials shows embedded claims about provenance and editing. We do not fetch external data. A missing manifest, hash distance or histogram does not prove that a photo is authentic or AI-generated.

Deleting metadata does not hide names, addresses, number plates or QR codes. With Redact information we bake opaque shapes into the pixels of a new PNG. You choose the areas. Check the copy and its filename before sharing.