Quick answer
Removing EXIF is one step. It does not make a person anonymous. The Committee to Protect Journalists advises removing metadata from photos before posting, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Freedom of the Press Foundation describe how to do it. EFF also points to something a cleaned file still carries: what is in the picture, such as identifiable faces. Photo Scrubber removes embedded metadata from the file and shows what is left. It does not protect anyone's identity.
What the sources say
- The EFF Surveillance Self-Defense page on attending a protest says metadata on photos can include the camera model, the exact time and location, and even your name. It lists screenshots and sending the image through Signal as ways to strip it. It also warns that if faces are identifiable in posted photos, law enforcement or vigilantes might track people down, and that blurring can sometimes be reversed.
- Freedom of the Press Foundation says photo metadata includes a timestamp, location and camera type. It lists a screenshot, sending the photo to yourself via Signal, or removing location data in phone settings. It adds that metadata is not always digital: printed or scanned documents can carry printer dots that can reveal their origin, and for particularly sensitive cases the most responsible move for news organisations is to fully recreate the file before publishing it.
- The CPJ digital safety guide says to remove metadata, also known as EXIF data, before posting if possible, and not to upload any more data than is necessary.
- The SecureDrop documentation tells journalists that any digital photograph includes certain metadata by default, potentially including GPS coordinates, to anyone who gains access to the file. It also says that after running a metadata tool you should carefully inspect files to make sure all metadata has been wiped.
- The EFF page on why metadata matters says it can be difficult to protect metadata from external collection, because third parties often need metadata to connect your communications. Its comparison: a postal worker needs to read the outside of an envelope to deliver it, and digital messages often need to be marked with a source and a destination.
Clean the photo before you send it
- Open the tool above and add your JPG, PNG or WebP photos, up to 5 at a time. It runs entirely in your browser and your files are never uploaded.
- Read the before list. It shows what each file held, such as GPS position, camera make and model, serial number, and dates.
- Download the cleaned copy. The metadata is cut out of the file without re-encoding, so there is no quality loss. The ICC colour profile is kept, and on JPEGs a bare rotation flag is kept so the photo stays upright.
- Check the after list. The tool re-reads the cleaned file and lists what is left; read it, as the SecureDrop page suggests for any tool, instead of assuming it is empty.
- For HEIC, Safari can open the file and the page re-saves it as a JPEG, which is a re-encode; in a browser that cannot open HEIC, convert it first. GIF is not supported.
What this does not remove
- What is visible in the picture. Faces, places, documents and anything else in the frame stay. EFF treats identifiable faces as a separate risk from metadata.
- The file name. The tool does not rename files, so a name that reveals something travels with the photo.
- The channel. Who sends a file, to whom and when is not stored inside the photo, so cleaning it cannot change that. EFF explains why that kind of information is hard to hide.
- Copies stored elsewhere. The original on your device, cloud backups and the copy the recipient keeps are not changed.
- Anonymity. This is one step among several, and nothing here promises that a person cannot be identified.
To see what a photo holds before deciding, read how to see what metadata a photo has. Cleaning on a computer: Windows or Mac.