What GPS and EXIF actually store in a photo

GPS IFD: a pin, not a caption

JPEG EXIF can include a GPS Image File Directory. Common tags: GPSLatitude, GPSLongitude, GPSLatitudeRef (N/S), GPSLongitudeRef (E/W), sometimes GPSAltitude and GPSDateStamp. Values are often rational numbers (degrees, minutes, seconds). A library converts those to decimal degrees. About five decimals is enough to name a building. That is why a “nice sunset JPEG” can be a home address.

Phones write this when Location is on for the camera. Some cameras write it from a paired phone. Drones write it as a matter of course. Screenshots usually do not. Edited exports sometimes keep it, sometimes not — which is why inspect beats folklore. The table above reports hasGps, latitude and longitude when the parser can revive them. Empty cells mean this tab did not see those keys, not that a forensic lab would find nothing.

This page inspects. The homepage removes.

Two jobs share one origin and must stay distinct. Here you drop a still, readMeta runs, a table lists GPS, camera and dates. There is no Fast/Deep switch and no “Download clean”. Bytes on disk do not change. If the table shows a pin and you need those keys gone, open Remove these tags and run the stripper. Mixing inspect with wipe on this URL would make the lecture a second copy of the tool. The numbered wipe lives on how-to.

Re-inspect after a wipe is the honesty check: drop the downloaded file here again. If GPS is still Yes, the copy you picked is not the stripped blob — a common iPhone mix-up documented on iPhone.

IFD0 and Exif IFD: who shot it, when, with what

Make and Model name the body or phone. DateTimeOriginal is the capture clock, which may disagree with the filesystem timestamp. Software names the editor. Orientation tells viewers to rotate; Strip’s Deep path on the homepage applies orientation via createImageBitmap so the pixels you download already face the right way. Fast leaves pixel blocks alone, including orientation tags if they live outside the segments we cut — if a viewer then disagrees, Deep is the fix. This inspect table does not apply orientation. It only prints the tag.

Artist and Copyright are IPTC/EXIF cousins. Photojournalism may need them after a wipe, added in a tool that does not copy GPS from the original. Strip will not invent a byline.

Thumbnails, IPTC, XMP

A JPEG can hide a smaller JPEG with its own EXIF. IPTC (often APP13) holds captions and bylines. XMP is an XML packet editors love. Fast mode on the homepage is a segment-level scrub aimed at the usual APP1 EXIF and common extra segments. Deep mode is a new file from pixels, which is how stubborn packets disappear. Inspection here uses the same parser as the stripper’s “before” summary. It will not expand every MakerNote blob into a second table.

How to read the table

GPS present is the boolean the stripper uses for the copper badge. Latitude and longitude are decimal, five places when revived. Readable tags is a count of non-empty keys the parser merged — not an ISO inventory. Extra rows (LensModel, ImageDescription, GPS pair as a single string) appear when those keys exist. A screenshot with tag count 0 is a normal outcome. A phone JPEG with Make, Model, DateTimeOriginal and GPS is the usual leak.

Dates in the table are capture metadata. They are not the “Date modified” Finder shows after you download. If you need the clock gone as well as the pin, that is a wipe on the homepage, then confirm here.

Phone galleries often hide the same numbers behind an “i” or Info panel. That UI is not a strip, and it is not this table. iOS Photos can show a map pin while the JPEG you later export is a different object — a copy, a share-sheet still, a WhatsApp recode. Inspect the file you are about to send, not the preview in Recents. Decimal degrees in this table are revived from rationals; five places is street-level, not survey-grade. Do not treat a missing altitude row as “no GPS”: latitude plus longitude is enough to name a building.

Software tags tell you an editor touched the container. They do not prove GPS was removed. An export from a messenger can say WhatsApp in Software and still carry a pin, or drop the pin and keep Make. Read the GPS row first. Then the camera row. Then decide whether the homepage wipe is needed. Folklore (“Instagram already cleaned it”) is how listings leak a house.

What pixels still say

Reflections, street signs, unique windows, and faces are not EXIF. Strip will not invent a blur. If the story is the scene, crop. If the story is the object, fill the frame. Use this page as a map of the hidden layer only. Marketplace listings keep a CDN copy that is not this file — marketplace. Chat bubbles are not Files — WhatsApp.

Honesty limits

MakerNotes are vendor-specific. Steganography is out of scope. PDF, video, and RAW/DNG are other containers — Strip is a still-image utility. HEIC is rejected on purpose. We would rather list those limits than advertise a “military wipe.” Empty GPS on re-inspect is the success criterion after a homepage strip. This URL will not call piexif, will not rasterize Deep, and will not draw a map of the pin. Related ceilings: iPhone album, WhatsApp bubble, marketplace CDN.