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Privacy

Remove the GPS location from a photo

A photograph taken on a phone can record exactly where it was taken, down to a few metres, in a block of metadata most people never see.

Loading the metadata reader...

Share the original file - not a screenshot, the file - and that travels with it. This shows you what your photo actually carries, removes the location and the rest of the camera record, and writes a clean copy. The pixels are untouched: the picture is the same picture, it simply stops carrying the note about where you were standing.

How to remove the GPS location from a photo

  1. Drop in a photo. It is read in this page, not uploaded.
  2. Look at what it found: coordinates, camera, date, software.
  3. Remove it. The pixels stay exactly as they were.
  4. Download the cleaned copy and share that one instead.

Supported formats

This tool accepts JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC and TIFF files. Everything is decoded by your own browser, so the formats available depend on what your browser can open - which for HEIC in particular varies between Safari and other browsers.

Frequently asked questions

How do photos end up with my location in them?

Phone cameras write an EXIF block into the file alongside the picture, and if location services are enabled for the camera that block includes GPS coordinates, often with an altitude and a direction. It is a feature - it is how your photo library sorts pictures onto a map - and it is only a problem when the original file leaves your hands.

What exactly does this remove?

The removable metadata blocks the file carries: EXIF, which holds the GPS coordinates, the camera make and model, the exposure settings and the timestamp; plus XMP, IPTC and embedded comments where they exist. What it does not touch is the image data itself. Orientation is handled rather than dropped, so the picture does not come back rotated.

Can a photo still reveal where it was taken after this?

Yes, and any tool claiming otherwise is overstating. Removing metadata removes the recorded coordinates - it does not change what is visible in the picture. A street sign, a shopfront, a recognisable skyline or the view from a window can identify a place regardless. This tool reads metadata; it does not analyse the scene, and it makes no claim about what the picture itself shows.

Does uploading to social media not already strip this?

Most large platforms do remove EXIF when they re-encode an upload, but that is their behaviour rather than your guarantee, it varies between services and it changes without notice, and it does nothing for a photo you email, message or hand over as a file. Cleaning the file yourself is the version that does not depend on somebody else's current policy.

Is my photo sent anywhere?

No. The file is read and rewritten by your own browser on your own device. This is not a promise about a server's behaviour - the page is served with a network policy that permits no other destination, and the test suite fails if an image ever leaves the origin.

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