What a photograph knows about you
A single JPEG straight from a phone typically carries:
- The device — make, model, sometimes a serial number
- The lens and settings — focal length, aperture, shutter, ISO
- The moment — date and time to the second, often with timezone
- The place — latitude and longitude, accurate to a few metres
The last one is why this tool flags location separately rather than listing it among the rest. A photograph taken at home and published anywhere carries the address of the home.
Reading exposure
| Field | What it tells you |
| --- | --- |
| ExposureTime | Shutter speed — short freezes motion, long blurs it |
| FNumber | Aperture — small number, shallow depth of field |
| ISO | Sensor gain — high means a dark scene and visible noise |
| FocalLength | How wide or tight the framing was |
Together they explain most of why a photograph looks the way it does, which is the useful part when the picture came out wrong.
Stripping it
Re-encode the file. Any tool that decodes to pixels and writes a new image discards every metadata block by definition — there is nowhere for it to survive. That includes both image tools here.
Questions
Does my photograph get uploaded?+
No, and for this tool that matters more than most. EXIF routinely contains the coordinates of someone's home. The file is parsed in this tab, so checking a photo for location data does not require handing it to anyone.
How do I remove the GPS data?+
Run the image through the [image compressor](/t/image-compressor) or the [format converter](/t/image-format-converter). Both rebuild the file from decoded pixels, so every metadata block is dropped as a side effect — including location.
Why does my screenshot have no EXIF?+
Because nothing created it with a camera. EXIF is written by cameras and phones; screenshots, exports and images already processed by a social platform usually carry nothing.
Do social networks strip EXIF?+
Most strip it on upload, which is why a photo saved from Instagram has none. That is not a reason to rely on them — the copy you email, message or upload to your own site still carries everything.