Privacy & security
Runs on your device

Photo Privacy Cleaner

Photos can carry the exact place they were taken, the time, your phone's model and sometimes your name. See it, then remove it.

Drop photos here

JPEG, PNG and WebP. Your photos are read on this device and never uploaded. Cleaning removes the hidden details without re-compressing, so the picture stays exactly the same.

Location

Phones with location turned on for the camera save GPS coordinates, often precise enough to find a home.

Time and device

The date and second the photo was taken, the phone or camera model, and sometimes a serial number.

Who removes it

Many social networks strip this when you post, but email, messaging attachments and file sharing often keep it.

How this works

The file is read in your browser. Its metadata blocks are parsed: EXIF (including the GPS section), XMP, IPTC, comments, and text chunks in PNG files. Cleaning rebuilds the file without those blocks.

Lossless

The compressed image data is copied byte for byte. Nothing is decoded or re-compressed, so there is no loss of quality, and the cleaned file is usually a little smaller.

What is kept

  • Orientation. Phones save sideways photos with a "rotate me" flag. A tiny new EXIF block with only that flag is written, so the photo still shows the right way up.
  • Colour profile. Kept so colours look the same. It describes the display colour space, not you.
  • JPEG structure. The JFIF header and Adobe colour-transform marker, which decoders need.

What is removed

  • EXIF: GPS location, date and time, camera and lens, serial numbers, owner name, software, maker notes and the embedded thumbnail.
  • XMP and IPTC: editing history, captions, keywords, credits.
  • Comments, and in JPEGs any extra data after the image (some phones store a second image there, such as a depth map).
  • In PNG: tEXt, zTXt, iTXt, eXIf and tIME chunks. In WebP: EXIF and XMP chunks.

Limits

HEIC photos from iPhones cannot be opened by most browsers. On iPhone, sharing a photo with Mail or Messages usually converts it to JPEG, and Settings › Camera › Formats › Most Compatible makes the camera save JPEGs. The pixels themselves can also give a place away: a street sign, a view, a house number.