How to remove GPS location data from photos before sharing

Why this still surprises people

Cameras and phones write GPS, capture time, and device model into EXIF. Some social networks strip it on upload. Some do not. Messaging apps differ. The only file you control is the one you send.

Screenshots usually have no GPS. Camera photos usually do, until something strips them.

What we tested

A JPEG with GPSLatitude and GPSLongitude was opened in the EXIF viewer on 16 August 2026. Coordinates appeared as numbers. No map tiles loaded until an optional external link would be clicked — and the test did not click it.

The same file was passed through the metadata remover’s canvas re-encode. The EXIF viewer then reported no GPS tags on the download. Pixel quality changed slightly, as expected for a JPEG re-encode. That trade-off is the honest cost of a thorough strip.

A safe sequence

1. Open the EXIF viewer. If there is no GPS, you may still want to drop camera serials.

2. Run the metadata remover. Download the new file.

3. Open the download in the EXIF viewer. Do not skip the verify step.

4. Send the download, not the original from the camera roll.

Limitations

Platforms can still infer location from captions, previous posts, or the IP address of the upload. Stripping EXIF is necessary and not sufficient for anonymity.

PNG screenshots rarely contain GPS. They may still contain other text chunks; use the PNG inspector if the image came from a generator.