EXIF Viewer & Stripper — Remove GPS, Camera, and Personal...

What the tool does

When you drop an image, two things happen client-side:

Read — the exifr library parses every metadata container in the file: EXIF (camera info, lens, exposure), GPS (latitude/longitude/altitude/timestamp), IPTC (legacy press metadata: caption, byline, copyright), XMP (Adobe’s modern metadata format, common in pro tools), JFIF, and the ICC color profile. Tags are grouped by category so you can see at a glance what is exposed.
Strip — when you click the strip button, the tool re-parses the binary file structure and removes the metadata segments by hand. No pixel decoding, no re-encoding, no library that re-compresses anything. The bytes of the image itself are byte-identical to the original.

What gets stripped

Format	Removed segments
JPEG	APP1 (EXIF/XMP), APP13 (IPTC/Photoshop), APP2 (ICC), APP3–APP15 (vendor maker notes), COM (comments)
PNG	eXIf, tEXt, iTXt, zTXt, tIME, iCCP, pHYs
WebP	EXIF, XMP, ICCP (and the VP8X flag bits are cleared so the file stays internally consistent)

The remaining bytes — the JFIF header, the DQT/DHT/SOF/SOS segments, the IDAT chunks, the VP8 / VP8L bitstream — are written through unchanged.

What is NOT stripped

Image content itself. A photo of your house is still a photo of your house; the tool cannot un-photograph it. Stripping metadata removes the recorded location, not the visible scene.
Pixel-level steganography. If someone hid bits inside the image with a steganography tool, those bits survive lossless metadata strip. To wipe them, run the file through the image-compressor at low quality (which re-encodes pixels) or use a dedicated steganalysis tool.
EXIF data inside Photoshop or proprietary blocks that hide metadata in non-standard chunks. exifr catches the standard ones; outliers may survive. Verify by re-uploading.
Filesystem metadata (creation date, owner attributes on disk). That lives in your OS, not in the image file.

Why strip

GPS leaks. A phone photo of your kid at home often has the exact latitude/longitude of your house in its EXIF. Posting that anywhere public is equivalent to publishing your address.
Copyright and ownership info. Some camera apps embed your name, email, or social handle in every shot. If you do not want strangers to know who took a photo, strip.
Camera serial numbers. Forensic researchers can correlate the serial number in EXIF across multiple photos to prove the same camera took them — useful for journalists, dangerous for sources.
Software fingerprinting. EXIF reveals exactly which app and version processed the file, which can be used to fingerprint or target users.
Smaller files. Stripping a typical phone JPG saves 30–80KB. Multiply by a thumbnail gallery and the savings add up.

When NOT to strip

Pro photography workflows that depend on ICC color profiles being preserved across software.
Photojournalism where the IPTC fields are part of the byline / caption you legally need to preserve.
Forensic analysis where the chain of custody requires unmodified files.

If in doubt, keep an original copy. The tool does not modify your source — it produces a new “-stripped” file each time.

Privacy

Same posture as the rest of the multitool. A static HTML page with a small JavaScript bundle. exifr (the read library) and the strip code both run in your browser tab. The Network tab in DevTools confirms it — no requests fire when you drop a file, view metadata, or download output. There is no upload, no cloud storage, no analytics on file content.

Reminder: stripping metadata before sharing is a privacy good. Posting raw camera-roll JPGs is the wrong default; this tool flips it.

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Frequently asked questions

What is EXIF metadata and why should I care?

EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data is invisible information embedded in your photos: camera model, lens, exposure settings, software, copyright info, owner name, and — most importantly — GPS coordinates of where the photo was taken. A phone photo of your living room often includes the latitude and longitude of your home. Anyone who downloads the image can read it.

Does my image leave my browser?

No. Reading metadata and stripping it both happen in your browser tab using JavaScript and binary parsing. Open DevTools → Network — after the page loads, no requests fire when you drop a file, view metadata, or download the stripped output. The image bytes never reach a server.

What does "lossless byte-level strip" mean?

The tool surgically removes only the metadata segments from the file structure. JPEG APP1/APP13/COM markers, PNG eXIf/tEXt/iTXt/iCCP chunks, and WebP EXIF/XMP/ICCP chunks are deleted. The compressed pixel data — the part that actually represents the image — is left bit-identical. No re-encoding happens, so no quality is lost.

Is the stripped output 100% free of metadata?

For the standard metadata containers (EXIF, IPTC, XMP, ICC profile, comments), yes. Steganography, watermarks embedded directly in pixel values, and proprietary maker-note structures hidden inside non-metadata chunks are out of scope — those require pixel-level analysis or full re-encoding. For the privacy use case (do not leak my home GPS coordinates), this tool covers what matters.

What does the GPS warning look like?

If your file contains GPS latitude and longitude, the Location section turns red and surfaces a "View on map" link that opens OpenStreetMap centered on the location. That is the headline privacy risk; the tool draws attention to it deliberately.

Which formats are supported?

JPG, PNG, and WebP. HEIC (modern iPhone format) is not yet supported in this tool — convert to JPG with the image-compressor first if you need to scrub a HEIC file. RAW formats (CR2, NEF, DNG) are also not supported.

What about ICC color profiles?

ICC profiles are stripped along with other metadata. For most consumer photos and screenshots this is harmless — the image will display correctly using the standard sRGB color space. If you are working with professionally color-managed images intended for print, you may want to keep the profile; this tool's scope is privacy, not pro-photo workflows.

Can metadata leak even from a screenshot?

Yes. macOS and Windows write the device name, screen capture region, and sometimes the user account into screenshot metadata. Some screenshot tools embed the workspace or project name. Drop a screenshot here to see what your OS adds.

Is this tool really free?

Yes. No signup, no limit, no ads. Strip as many images as you like.