Before you share a photo or document

Files carry more than you see. A phone photo can record exactly where it was taken; a PDF can hold the author’s name and text deleted before the last save; a Word file can keep a colleague’s comments and tracked changes. These tools show what’s there and save a clean copy. The files stay in your browser. One step puts a password on a PDF, so the note below applies.

Take care with secrets. This runs only in your browser: what you enter isn't uploaded, stored or put in a link, and the page is built so that it can't send it anywhere else. Your browser's extensions and other software on your device can still see what's on screen, so use a device you trust and real secrets only when you need to. Disconnecting from the internet once the page has loaded gives the most protection. Use is at your own risk: see the terms.

1. Photos: location and camera

Open the photo in Photo Metadata. It lists the camera, the date and time, any owner name or serial number, and the Location (GPS): for a photo taken at home, that’s your address. Save a copy without metadata removes all of it without re-compressing the picture, so it’s just as sharp.

For an iPhone’s HEIC photo, or to make a big photo smaller as well, save a copy with Image Convert / Resize instead: it never keeps metadata.

2. Videos and sound recordings

A phone video can carry the same location as a photo. Drop it on Video Info to see the camera, the recording date and any Location, then Save a copy without the location: the video isn’t re-encoded, so it looks and sounds the same. Or share it from the phone with location turned off (on an iPhone, Options at the top of the share sheet). Action cameras and drones also record a GPS track inside the video, which this can’t remove; the message warns when there is one.

A sound file can name the app or person that made it, and files that went through a music app may carry cover pictures and comments. Open it in Audio Tags and Save without tags for a copy with the sound unchanged.

3. Screenshots and photos: what’s in the picture

Metadata isn’t the only giveaway. In Photo Censor, drag a box over each face, number plate, name, email address or account number and save the picture. Use A solid box for text and numbers: pixelation and light blur can sometimes be read back. The saved copy is redrawn, so it has no metadata either.

If you share a picture publicly and want it credited, Watermark Image puts your name or a logo on one picture or many: choose Stamp with text, set the Position, Opacity and Width, and Save the stamped pictures. It makes copying less convenient, not impossible, as a watermark can be cropped or painted out. Its copies are redrawn too, so the camera details and location are dropped.

4. PDFs

Open the PDF in PDF Info & Clean. It lists, worst first, scripts, attached files, earlier saved versions (where deleted text can survive), the names of people who commented, and editing history. The Properties show the author and the apps it passed through. Save a clean copy removes all of that while the pages stay the same.

It doesn’t change the text on the pages, and a black box drawn over text in most PDF apps doesn’t remove the text underneath. To hide an account number or a name for real, open the PDF in Photo Censor, draw boxes over it on each page and Save as PDF: the copy is pictures of the pages, so nothing is left under the boxes to copy out. Clean the original here first, or use the copy as it is: being pictures, it carries no names or history.

When the file also has to travel by email or a shared drive, finish with Protect / Unlock PDF: choose Protect it with a password, type an Open password twice and Protect and save, then send the password by a different route. Do this last, as the other tools can’t open a protected file. Only the open password keeps people out; the options to stop printing or copying are requests that some readers ignore.

5. Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Open the file in the Office Metadata Cleaner. It finds the author and last editor, the company, the template’s folder, comments, tracked changes (deleted text included), hidden sheets and slides, and speaker notes. Save a clean copy removes the names and properties and renames comment and change authors “Author”; the message lists what’s left to deal with in Office itself, such as accepting tracked changes.

6. Text you paste into an AI chat

Logs, emails and code often hold keys, email addresses and server addresses. Redact for AI swaps each for a placeholder such as <EMAIL_1> before you paste, and puts the real values back into the AI’s answer. Add names it can’t find by pattern in the names box, and read the result before you paste it.