Contrary to what you might believe, some of your personalized files are compromised, and things have been this way for years. Your documents, pictures, and videos all have metadata information attached, and this can be a problem if the wrong persons get a hold of your files.
When you take a photo with your smartphone, the device automatically adds your GPS location to the image. Unless that piece of information is removed, anyone with access to that image can tell where, when and what time the picture was taken. That gives them an idea of where you were at that present time, which scary.
EXIF stands for ‘Exchangeable Image File Format‘ and refers to the basic metadata that is generated and stored by your camera whenever you take a photo. EXIF is a format for storing metadata in image and audio files.
So, the question right now is how one cleans their files of such information to ensure they are safe from prying eyes. Well, that’s easy. We will use a tool called ExifCleaner because it is designed specifically for removing metadata from files.
We like it because it works and also because of its clean design. Once it is up and running, users have nothing much to worry about because there is no complexity here.
Remove metadata using ExifCleaner
ExifCleaner is a metadata cleaner and removal tool for removing properties, GPS, and personal information from Word, PDF, Image, Video, etc. files. However, there is no option to select what to delete, so it is not good enough for professionals.
OK, so the first thing you will want to do here, is to add a file. Strangely enough, the only option to add a file is to drag and drop. Now that is not bad, but we tend to like options, so hopefully, in the future, the developer adds an Add File button.
Once the file has been inserted, the user should now see the name of the added file, along with the number of Exif (Exchangeable image file format). There is really nothing else to do from here on because the tool automatically removes all metadata from the image.
Yes, we would have loved the ability to decide which metadata should go, but for amateurs, this is perfect. If you are looking for a free Windows 10 program that gives the option to choose, then take a look at GIMP.
It is overall a good tool that does the job well. You can download ExifCleaner from the official website.
Related posts:
- Remove Properties and Personal information from photos, files
- How to edit Music Metadata on Windows
- ExifTool is a good freeware that lets you read, write and edit Meta information.
- MP3tag lets you edit metadata and tags of Audio formats
- Doc Scrubber helps remove hidden metadata from .DOC files
- Metadata Cleaner is a Office documents Metadata Cleanup & Removal Tool.
