What Is Photo Metadata (EXIF)? How to View and Remove It

Every photo you take can carry an invisible package of information alongside the image: which device took it, when, and sometimes exactly where. This information is called metadata, and its most common form is EXIF. This guide is for researchers and for anyone who wants to protect their own privacy.

What is EXIF?

EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is a standard metadata format that cameras and phones write into the photos they take. It is not visible in the picture; it is stored inside the file. There are other metadata formats too, such as IPTC and XMP, used especially by editing software and news agencies.

What does it carry?

• Device: The make and model of the phone or camera, sometimes lens information.
• Date and time: The moment the photo was taken (according to the device clock; the time zone is not always recorded).
• Location: GPS coordinates if location services are on, sometimes altitude and direction.
• Shooting settings: Exposure time, aperture, ISO, flash use.
• Software: The program that edited or saved the photo.
• Small preview: In some files, a small copy of the photo. Even if the photo was cropped, the preview may show the original.

Does social media remove metadata?

Most large social media platforms remove metadata such as location from the public copy of uploaded photos. But this is not true everywhere: files sent by e-mail, cloud sharing links, forums and photos sent “as a file/document” in some messaging apps can reach the recipient in their original form, metadata included. And you cannot know whether a platform keeps the information it removes from the public copy on its own servers.

How to view metadata

On a computer

• Windows: Right-click the file and look at Properties → Details.
• macOS: Open the photo in Preview and use Tools → Show Inspector to see EXIF and (if present) GPS data.
• ExifTool: The free, open-source tool that shows all metadata in the most detail. Just type exiftool photo.jpg on the command line.

On a phone

• iPhone: Open the photo in the Photos app and swipe up or tap the info (i) button; the device, date and location appear.
• Android: Open the photo in Google Photos and swipe up; the details section shows the date, device and location.

How to remove it before sharing

1. Block it at the source: If you turn off location permission for your phone’s camera app, no location is written to new photos. You can turn it on temporarily for photos where you need location.
2. When sharing on iPhone: Use Options at the top of the share sheet to share without location data.
3. On Windows: The “Remove Properties and Personal Information” link at the bottom of the Properties → Details tab creates a copy with metadata removed.
4. With ExifTool: The command exiftool -all= photo.jpg removes all metadata and keeps the original as photo.jpg_original.

How is metadata used in OSINT?

If you can get hold of the original file in an investigation, metadata can be very valuable: a GPS coordinate gives the location directly and a date gives the timeline. Still, do not trust metadata blindly:

• Metadata can easily be changed or added falsely.
• The device clock may be set wrong; without a time zone, local time and UTC can get mixed up.
• GPS data can be off by a few hundred metres, especially indoors and between tall buildings.

So verify what you get from metadata against the content of the image (shadows, signs, weather). We explain what to do with photos that have no metadata in our guide to finding a photo’s location.

Note: metadata is fully removed from photos in OSINT TR missions before they are published. Look for the location in the photo itself, not in the metadata.