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What Your Photo's EXIF Data Reveals, Field by Field

Which EXIF fields reveal your location, time, device and identity, how precise GPS coordinates are, and a tested check of what is left after removing metadata.

By TooleemPublished Facts checked

Short answer

A photo’s EXIF block can hold the exact place it was taken (GPS latitude, longitude and altitude, often to a few metres), the date and time with the time zone, the phone or camera model, lens and software version, and sometimes a serial number or owner name. Anyone who gets the original file can read it with free software. Sending the file as an attachment or a download keeps all of it. In our test, re-saving the photo through Tooleem’s metadata remover left no EXIF, GPS, camera, serial or owner field, only a standard colour profile.

Do the calculation

Image Metadata Remover

Remove GPS, camera and other EXIF fields from a photo in your browser before you post or send it.

Open the tool
On this page
  1. What each group of fields reveals
  2. How precise the location is
  3. Tested: what is left after removal
  4. Before you share a photo

What each group of fields reveals

Common EXIF fields and the privacy risk they carry
Field (EXIF tag)ExampleWhat it revealsRisk
GPSLatitude, GPSLongitude48°51′30.13″ N, 2°17′40.13″ EWhere the photo was taken, often within metresHigh: home, school, daily routine
GPSAltitude, GPSHPositioningError35.2 m, accuracy 4.7 mHeight and how precise the fix wasMedium: floor of a building, precision of the location
DateTimeOriginal, OffsetTimeOriginal2026:07:14 18:42:07, +02:00When, to the second, and the time zoneMedium: routine, travel dates
Make, Model, LensModelApple, iPhone 15Which device you useLow to medium: links photos to one device
Software18.6Operating system or editing app versionLow
SerialNumber (BodySerialNumber)TESTSERIAL123The individual cameraHigh: ties every photo to one camera
OwnerName (CameraOwnerName)Test OwnerA name typed into the camera settingsHigh when filled in
ExposureTime, FNumber, ISO1/120, f/1.6, ISO 64Camera settingsLow
OrientationRotate 90° clockwiseHow to turn the image for displayNone, but removing it can show the photo sideways
Example values come from our test file. The GPS point is a public landmark (the Eiffel Tower); the serial number and owner are placeholders.

EXIF is a standard kept by the Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA). GPS fields were added in version 2.0 (1997), fields for the camera owner and serial number in 2.3 (2010), the time-zone offset in 2.31 (2018); the current version is 3.1, published in January 2026. Phones also write other metadata blocks (XMP, IPTC, maker notes) that can repeat the same information.

How precise the location is

Size of one step in the last decimal place of a GPS coordinate, at the latitude of Paris (48.9° N)
Decimal placesLatitude stepLongitude stepEnough to find
2 (48.86)1.1 km732 ma district
3 (48.858)111 m73 ma street
4 (48.8584)11 m7.3 ma building
5 (48.85837)1.1 m0.73 ma door
6 (48.858370)0.11 m0.07 mmore than the GPS accuracy itself
Latitude: 1° ≈ 111.32 km. Longitude: the same times the cosine of the latitude. Phones usually record the fix with several more decimals than the accuracy justifies; the accuracy field (4.7 m in our file) says how good the fix really was.

Tested: what is left after removal

Our test photo before and after the image metadata remover (Chromium, 2026-10-13)
CheckOriginalAfter the tool
GPS position and altitudepresentremoved
Date and time, time zonepresentremoved
Make, model, lens, softwarepresentremoved
Serial number and ownerpresentremoved
Orientation tagRotate 90° clockwiseremoved; the pixels are rotated instead, so the photo still shows upright
Colour profilenonestandard sRGB profile added by the browser
Image size3,000 × 2,0082,008 × 3,000 (rotated)
The tool redraws the image and saves a new file, so a JPEG is re-compressed at the chosen quality. Results can differ slightly between browsers.

Before you share a photo

  1. On iPhone, when sharing from Photos, tap Options in the share sheet and turn off Location; "Location Not Included" then shows above Options.
  2. To stop location being recorded at all on iPhone: Settings, Privacy & Security, Location Services, Camera, Never.
  3. Before posting a photo of your home, your child’s school or your car, or sending it to a stranger, remove the metadata with the image metadata remover.
  4. Check the result: open the cleaned file in any EXIF viewer and confirm there is no GPS section.

Common mistake

Metadata is not the only clue

A street sign, a view from a window or a reflection can reveal a place as well as GPS coordinates do. Removing EXIF protects the file, not what the picture shows.

Do the calculation

Image Metadata Remover

Remove GPS, camera and other EXIF fields from a photo in your browser before you post or send it.

Open the tool

Tools used in this guide

Sources

The figures and rules in this guide come from these documents.

  1. About Exif 3.0: overview of the latest revisionCamera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA)History of the standard: GPS fields (2.0), owner and serial number (2.3), time offset (2.31).
  2. CIPA DC-008-Translation-2026: Exif Version 3.1Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA)Current Exif standard, published 2026-01-30.
  3. Manage location metadata in PhotosApple Support, Personal Safety User GuideTurning off Location when sharing, and stopping location collection in Camera.
  4. KSC-2009-3194: aerial view of the Rocket GardenNASA Image and Video LibraryPublic-domain photo used as the base of the test file.

Facts checked

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