How To: Completely Remove Your Hidden Personal Information from Digital Photos

How to Completely Remove Your Hidden Personal Information from Digital Photos

You probably already know that your digital pictures have quite a bit of information embedded in them. What you might not know is just how much personal information is included in that metadata, including your camera information, and in some cases, even the precise GPS coordinates of where you took the picture.

Before posting your photos to a public website, it's probably a good idea to look into clearing it of any information you don't want out there. The information is stored in what are called "EXIF Tags," which are fairly easy to access via Windows Explorer or many image editing programs. There's also something called Exiftool, the PHP method, and Exif Reader, among others.

Luckily, that metadata is pretty easy to get rid of without any additional software. This only works in Windows. If you're on a Mac, there's tons of tools out there like Jhead, SmallImage, etc., or you can just convert the file to a PNG, which wipes the metadata away.

Step 1: Consolidate the Images

Place all of the photos that you wish to clean in a single folder.

Step 2: Remove Properties and Personal Information Option

Select all of the images files and right-click on them. Choose Properties, then go to the Details tab. Click on "Remove Properties and Personal Information."

Step 3: Delete the EXIF Tags

Select which EXIF tags you wish to remove, then click OK.

If you need a more visual walkthrough of the process, check out Labnol's video tutorial:

Know of any other ways to remove the metadata from your JPGs? Let us know in the comments.

Main photo by SupportLife