Protect Your Online Privacy: 4 Easy Ways to Remove Metadata From Your Files

Are there ways to remove metadata from your files? Why do you even need to remove it from your files? Protecting your online privacy is critical in this day and age. Some people may not be familiar with metadata and how it reveals information about you. Let’s talk about what metadata really is, how it impacts online privacy, and why you should remove it from your files.

What is Metadata?

Metadata is data that can be hidden in every digital file. It’s what makes it possible for you to search through documents, photos, and other files with ease. The metadata can include information such as the time and date you created or last modified a file, who has access to it, what software was used to create it, and even the exact location of where the photo was taken!

Why do you need to remove metadata from your files?

Metadata can invade your privacy and reveal a lot about you. Take a look at this example.

You may not realize that metadata is included in any files you download, but deleting it can protect your online privacy and prevent others from gathering information about what you’re doing online.

Remove Metadata From Your Files

Knowledge is power when it comes to privacy — and so is removing your most prized assets from being shared on the world wide web. Good news! Removing metadata from your files has never been easier. Check out these easy ways below.

Using mobile apps

Here are some mobile apps that can help remove metadata from your photos:

• Photo Metadata Remover: It can be used to remove metadata from photos taken with any device including smartphones, tablets, cameras, etc.
• Scrambled EXIF: This app also removes GPS coordinates and other information from pictures on your phone so that anyone who views them won’t know where or when they were taken.

Using Windows File Explorer

You can also remove metadata using Windows File Explorer in just a few clicks. Here’s how:

1. Open File Explorer and navigate to the folder containing the file or folder you want to remove metadata from.
2. Right-click on your file and select Properties.
3. In the properties window that opens up next, click on Advanced.
4. Scroll down until you find Removing Properties From This Folder and click on it.
5. Click on Remove Properties and Personal Information.
6. Click Remove All Properties at the bottom of the window to remove all of your data.

Using Mac

For Mac, you can only remove the location of your images without using third-party software. Here’s how:

1. Open the file in Preview
2. Display the metadata by hitting CMD + i
3. Under the Info tab, click on GPS
4. Click on Remove Location Info

Using Linux

Here’s how to do it on Linux:

1. For a Debian-based system, install MAT by using this command: $ sudo apt – get install mat
2. Launch the MAT GUI using this command: $ mat – gui
3. Click the Add icon to clean out the file
4. Click on Check to scan the metadata
5. Click on Clean to remove the metadata from the file 

Key Takeaways

Ensuring the privacy of your sensitive data is one of your most important concerns. And yet, despite this concern, metadata gets left behind in thousands of common files every day. To avoid privacy issues, it’s important to remove metadata before sharing or uploading files online.

We hope this article helps you explore metadata and how you can protect your privacy by removing it from your files. Save this article for later and share it with your friends.