PRPickrack

EXIF Reader & Stripper

Read camera metadata + GPS from photos. Optionally strip metadata before sharing (privacy). Browser-side.

Read camera + GPS metadata from photos. Strip metadata before sharing for privacy. Browser-side.

EXIF Reader & Stripper displays the metadata embedded in any photo: camera make/model, lens, capture settings (shutter, aperture, ISO), date/time taken, and (most importantly for privacy) embedded GPS coordinates. Strip the metadata with one click before sharing online — Pickrack re-encodes the photo via Canvas API to produce a clean copy with zero metadata.

Use it for: forensic analysis of a photo's origin, verifying a photographer's claimed equipment, debugging your own camera settings, auditing a vendor's promotional photo, and most importantly: removing GPS data before posting photos online. By default, smartphones embed GPS into every photo. Posting on Twitter/Reddit/Discord WITHOUT stripping → you've published your home/office/wherever-you-were location to strangers.

Free, no signup, fully browser-side. Photo never leaves your tab. EXIF parsing uses the [exifreader](https://github.com/mattiasw/ExifReader) library; the strip operation uses Canvas API which writes no metadata.

Key features

  • Full EXIF + IPTC + XMP parsing — All standard photo metadata: camera, lens, capture settings, date, GPS, software fingerprint, IPTC keywords, XMP tags.
  • GPS extraction + Maps link — Latitude/longitude shown as decimal coordinates with a one-click 'Open in Google Maps' link.
  • Visual privacy warning — Yellow warning banner appears if GPS data is detected, with one-click strip option.
  • Strip metadata — Re-encode the photo via Canvas (canvas API writes no metadata) → clean PNG or JPG output. Pixel data preserved, all metadata gone.
  • Copy as text — Export all metadata as a Markdown-style text dump for filing or forensic note-taking.
  • Size diff — Original vs stripped file size shown — metadata can be surprisingly large (HEIC files can have several MB of metadata).
  • Browser-side only — Photo + EXIF data stay in your tab. Strip happens locally via Canvas. No upload to a metadata-scanning service that may itself store the data.

How to use

  1. Step 1: Upload photo — Drop or click. JPG / HEIC / PNG / TIFF supported. Smartphone photos always have EXIF; web-downloaded images usually don't.
  2. Step 2: Read the metadata — All fields shown, grouped by category (Camera, Capture, Date, Location, File info, Other).
  3. Step 3 (privacy): Strip metadata — If GPS or sensitive data is present, click 'Strip metadata + download clean copy'. Pickrack re-encodes the image with zero metadata.
  4. Step 4: Use the cleaned copy — Download the stripped version. Use it anywhere — no one can extract GPS or camera info from the cleaned copy.

When to use

  • Pre-social-media cleanup — strip GPS before posting vacation photos to Twitter / Instagram / Reddit
  • Selling on marketplace — strip metadata from product photos so buyers can't locate your home
  • Whistleblower / journalist source protection — strip device fingerprint before publishing leaked photos
  • Real estate listing photos — verify or strip property GPS before listing publicly
  • Photo forensics — verify a photographer's claimed camera/lens, check the timestamp authenticity
  • Auditing client deliverables — read metadata to see what software the photographer used
  • Personal photo organization — read 'date taken' to sort photos correctly

Frequently asked questions

What is EXIF metadata exactly?

Exchangeable Image File Format — a standard for embedding metadata in image files. Smartphones write camera model, exposure settings, timestamps, GPS coordinates, and sometimes software fingerprints into every JPG/HEIC. PNG occasionally has EXIF too (less common). WebP can have EXIF.

Is GPS in every smartphone photo?

Default on most iOS + Android phones unless you disable location for the Camera app. iPhone: Settings → Privacy → Location Services → Camera → 'Never'. Android: Camera app settings → Location → off. For photos already taken, you have to strip metadata after the fact (e.g., with this tool).

Does social media strip EXIF automatically?

Twitter/X strips most EXIF including GPS (since 2014). Facebook strips most. Instagram strips most. Reddit strips. BUT: Discord embeds, direct messages, image-hosting sites (Imgur, Catbox), and email attachments often DON'T strip — and even on platforms that strip, you usually can't verify in advance. Best practice: strip before upload.

How is 'strip metadata' implemented?

Pickrack loads the photo via Canvas API, then re-exports it via canvas.toBlob('image/jpeg') or image/png. Canvas writes no EXIF — only raw pixel data. Pixel data is preserved (no quality loss for PNG, default 95% quality JPEG). All metadata is dropped.

Does strip change image quality?

PNG output: lossless, identical pixels. JPEG output: re-encoded at 95% quality — typically indistinguishable from the original by eye, though pixel-level diff will show ~0.1% differences. If quality is critical (large prints, scientific imaging), keep the original + share the stripped copy.

What if my image has copyright info I want to keep?

Stripping removes EVERYTHING including copyright + author tags. v1 doesn't have selective strip (e.g., 'remove GPS only, keep copyright'). On the roadmap. For now: write down the copyright info before stripping, then re-embed it with a tool like exiftool after.

Is this tool itself privacy-safe?

Yes. All EXIF reading + stripping happens in your browser tab via JavaScript. The photo + metadata never reach any server. Pickrack has zero logs about what you uploaded. Verify in DevTools → Network → no upload requests during the operation.

What about HEIC files from iPhone?

HEIC is supported. The metadata reads correctly. Note: HEIC strip → JPG output (since Canvas can't write HEIC). To keep HEIC format AND strip metadata, use exiftool CLI on macOS.

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