What your photos reveal, and how to remove location data before sharing

A phone photo is more than a picture. Tucked inside the file there is usually a small block of text recording when it was taken, on what device and, very often, exactly where you were standing. None of it shows up when you look at the image, which is why it’s so easy to share by accident. Here’s what that data is, how to see it, and how to remove the location before a photo leaves your hands.

What EXIF is

EXIF (Exchangeable image file format) is the standard way cameras and phones store information about a photo inside the photo file. It is published by the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) as CIPA DC-008, developed jointly with Japan’s JEITA. Version 1.0 was published in October 1995; Exif 3.0 arrived in May 2023, and CIPA’s standards list now shows a 2026 revision, Exif 3.1.

The standard defines dozens of “tags”, each a labeled value: the camera model, the shutter speed, the date and time, and a whole section of GPS tags for position. Phones fill in many of them automatically. JPG is the classic home for EXIF, but HEIC, PNG and WebP files can carry it too, which is why the EXIF remover reads all four.

EXIF isn’t the only kind of photo metadata. Editing and photo-management apps often add XMP and IPTC data as well. The IPTC Photo Metadata Standard includes fields for a creator’s name and contact details, the city and country shown in an image, and a “Location Created” structure that can hold GPS coordinates. So the same location can appear in more than one place in a single file, and a cleaner has to remove all of them.

Which fields matter for privacy

Most EXIF tags are harmless camera settings. A handful are personal. The table lists the ones worth caring about, using the tag names from the Exif standard.

The thumbnail deserves a sentence of its own. The Exif standard lets a file carry a small preview image in a separate section, and cameras are encouraged to record one. If an app crops or edits the main picture but doesn’t rewrite that preview, the thumbnail still shows the old version, including whatever you cropped out. Removing metadata removes the thumbnail too.

How to check a photo

Before you remove anything, it helps to know what’s there.

• In the browser: drop the photo into the EXIF remover. It lists the camera, lens, date taken, exposure, software, any serial numbers or owner name, and the GPS position, altitude and direction, with the location fields highlighted. A map link is there if you want it, but it only opens when you click it.
• iPhone or iPad: Apple’s instructions are to open the photo in Photos, then swipe up or tap the Info button. A map appears when there’s a location.
• Mac: in Photos, select the photo and click the Info button to review its location information.
• Android: in Google Photos, open the photo and tap More to see its details, including location.
• Windows: right-click the file in File Explorer, choose Properties, then open the Details tab to see the properties Windows can read.

Worked example: reading GPS coordinates

Location shows up in two formats, and it’s worth knowing both. The Exif standard stores latitude and longitude as three numbers: degrees, minutes and seconds (DMS). Map apps usually show a single decimal number instead. Converting is plain arithmetic: one degree is 60 minutes, and one minute is 60 seconds.

How precise is that? A degree of latitude is roughly 111 km (the Earth is about 40,000 km around through the poles, and 40,000 ÷ 360 ≈ 111). So the fourth decimal place is about 11 meters, the fifth about 1.1 meters, and the sixth about 11 centimeters. Phone GPS isn’t always that accurate, but a photo taken in your living room can easily land on your house rather than your street.

Does sharing a photo strip it?

Sometimes, and it’s risky to assume. Behavior differs between apps and services, between sending a file and posting it, and it can change with updates. Some services remove metadata from the copy other people see; others pass the original file along untouched, especially when you send something “as a file” or “as a document”, attach it to an email, or put it in a cloud folder.

Google, for example, says that items you share from Google Photos (other than with partner sharing) don’t include location details by default, and that you can choose to include them. That is Google Photos’ own sharing; a file you save and send through another app follows that app’s rules.

The reliable approach is to clean the photo yourself before it leaves your device. If you’re curious about a particular service, post a test photo, download your own copy, and check it in the EXIF remover.

How to remove location on your device

Every major platform has a built-in way to share without location. Menus change between versions, so the steps below follow each company’s own help pages.

iPhone and iPad

• For one share: select the photos, tap the Share button, then tap Options and turn off Location. Tap Done and share as usual.
• For a photo in your library: open it in Photos, tap the More button, tap Adjust Info, tap Adjust Location, then tap No Location.
• For future photos: go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera and tap Never.

Android

On Pixel phones, Google’s steps are: open the Camera app, tap Settings, then More settings, and turn off Save location. Other manufacturers use similar names, such as “Location tags”, “Store location data” or “Geographic locations”, so look in your camera app’s settings.

Google Photos can remove a location (open the photo, tap More, then Edit, then Remove location), but Google’s help page is clear about a limit: you can only update or remove estimated locations, and if your camera added the location automatically, you can’t remove it in Google Photos. For those photos, use a metadata remover before sharing.

Windows

File Explorer has a built-in cleaner. Select one or more files, right-click and choose Properties, open the Details tab and click Remove Properties and Personal Information. The default option creates a copy with every property Windows can change removed; the second lets you tick individual properties to delete from the original. It only handles the properties Windows understands, so check the copy afterward.

Mac

In Photos, select the photos, then choose Image > Location > Hide Location. Apple lists this as the way to remove location metadata on a Mac, and Revert to Original Location undoes it. Before sending an exported copy somewhere sensitive, open it in the EXIF remover to confirm the GPS fields are gone.

Remove it in the browser with PixWrench

If you’d rather not dig through menus, or you’re on a computer someone else set up, three tools cover most cases. Each one works on your device, inside the browser tab; the photo isn’t uploaded.

• EXIF remover shows what’s in each photo, then removes all metadata (the default) or only the location. For JPG, PNG and WebP it is lossless: the image data is copied byte for byte and only the metadata blocks are dropped. A photo that depends on an EXIF rotation keeps a tiny orientation-only tag so it stays upright. After cleaning, the new file is re-read to check that no GPS remains.
• HEIC to JPG converter handles iPhone HEIC photos, which the EXIF remover can display but not clean in place. Its default, “Remove location, keep the rest”, keeps the date taken, camera and exposure details and drops the GPS, thumbnail and maker notes. Each file gets a “Location removed” badge so you can see it worked.
• Blur image tool is for what’s visible in the picture itself (more on that below). Draw boxes over faces, license plates or a house number and choose pixelate, blur or a solid fill. Metadata is removed from the result by default.

What metadata removal can’t hide

Stripping EXIF removes what’s hidden in the file. It does nothing about what’s in the picture. A street sign, a distinctive view from a window, a school logo on a sweatshirt, a parcel label or a car’s license plate can give away a location just as well as GPS tags.

Before posting, take a few seconds to look at the photo as a stranger would. Crop out what you don’t need with the crop tool, and cover anything sensitive with the blur tool.

Finally, remember that timing reveals things too. A photo of an empty beach posted the moment you take it tells people you’re not at home. Posting later, with the date stripped, is a simple habit that costs nothing.

Written and checked by the PixWrench team against the sources listed above. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we’ll check it and note the fix in the changelog.