EXIF data can include a variety of information such as the date and time when the photo was taken, GPS data, camera or smartphone model, whether or not flash was used, and more. This metadata can be useful for many things, but it can also compromise your privacy if exposed to the Internet. You surely do not want the photos you upload traced back to your location by random strangers or, worse, the authorities in the case of incriminating photos. There are some services, such as Imgur, that will remove this metadata for you automatically, but many won’t, and some may actually harvest the data to help improve their tracking and advertising strategies. If you do not want your private details to be exposed online through your photos, it is better to get rid of the data before uploading to social media or sharing on a forum. We have already shown you how to get rid of EXIF data on Windows, Linux and macOS. However, it may be more convenient to to do this directly on your smartphone since many people already take most of their photos with a smartphone camera.

How to Remove EXIF Data on Android

Photo Exif Editor is an app that allows you to view, modify or delete the EXIF data embedded in your photos. It is available in free and paid versions. I will be using the free version in this tutorial.

  1. Once you’ve installed the app, grant it the necessary permissions for it to be able to access your files.
  2. Select a photo from your gallery or use the browse option to pick a file from the filesystem.
  3. Once you’ve selected a photo, you will see a list of all the EXIF data present in the image.
  4. If you wish to modify one of the tags, just tap on it, modify its value and tap the save button in the top right.
  5. To remove all or a selection of the EXIF data, tap EXIF and choose the exact tags you want to remove. A select all option is also available to quickly mark all the items at once.
  6. Finally, save your modifications by hitting the Save icon. You can confirm that all EXIF data has been deleted by viewing the photo again in the app or in your favourite photo gallery application. The app also gives you the option to delete EXIF data from multiple photos at once. Keep in mind that once you hit the Save button, your image will be overwritten and the EXIF data lost forever. If you want to preserve this data, please make a backup of the photo before performing any operations.

Wrap Up

Stripping your photos of EXIF metadata is one easy way you can protect your privacy online, and this tool makes it easy for you to do just that on your Android device. If you know other apps or techniques that help to remove identifiable information while sharing photos online, do share them with us in the comments section. Image credit: SeaMonkey-Exif-b