Privacy tools
Files carry more than they show: a location in a photo, a name in a screenshot, a link behind a QR code. These tools find it and remove it before you share, on your own device.
Check before you trust
Which tool for which job
| You want to | Use |
|---|---|
| Black out a name, address, card number or face in a screenshot or photo | Redact image |
| See whether a photo reveals where it was taken | EXIF viewer |
| Remove GPS location and camera details before sharing | EXIF remover |
| See where a QR code leads before opening it | QR code scanner |
| Check an attachment is really the type of file it claims to be | File type checker |
| Confirm a download hasn’t been tampered with | File hash |
| Mark a copy of an ID or document with who it was sent to | Watermark image, Watermark PDF |
What leaks and how
Most accidental leaks aren’t dramatic. A photo of a new sofa carries the coordinates of the house it sits in. A screenshot of a conversation shows a phone number in the corner. A scanned ID sent to a landlord is also, from then on, a scanned ID in a landlord's inbox. None of it is visible at a glance, which is why it gets shared.
The fix in each case is small: strip the metadata, cover the detail or mark the copy so it is only useful for the purpose you sent it for. The point of doing it here is that the file you are trying to protect never goes to another website first.
Covering isn’t the same as removing
A box drawn over text in a PDF editor, a highlighter set to black or a sticker placed on a photo in a messaging app can often be lifted off again, because the original is still underneath. The redaction tool writes out a new image in which the covered pixels no longer exist and the EXIF remover writes out a new file without the metadata at all.
Guides
Common questions
Are my files uploaded?
No. Every tool here runs in your browser. That matters more on this page than anywhere else: a tool for removing sensitive details from a file shouldn’t need a copy of the file with the details still in it.
What hidden information is in a photo?
Usually the camera or phone model, the date and time it was taken and the settings used. Photos taken on a phone with location turned on also carry GPS coordinates, often accurate to a few metres. The EXIF viewer shows exactly what a given photo holds.
Do social networks remove location data?
The large ones strip it from the copy they show, but email attachments, messaging apps that send the original file, cloud share links, forums and marketplaces often keep it. Removing it yourself before sending means you don’t have to know which is which.
Is a black box over text enough to hide it?
In an image, yes, as long as the box is part of the saved pixels. The redaction tool writes a new image, so the covered area is gone rather than hidden under a layer. In a PDF, a box drawn on top often leaves the text underneath selectable, which is why the tool works on images.
Does removing EXIF data reduce quality?
No. The EXIF remover rewrites the file around the image data without decoding and re-encoding it, so the picture is bit for bit the same. It keeps the orientation flag, so photos don’t turn sideways.