Before you send a file.
Eleven guides to the metadata in photos, Office documents and PDFs: where it sits, how to remove it with the tools you already have, and when those are enough.
Guides
- Remove the location from a photo before you send it
Stop iPhone and Android cameras recording where you are, share one photo without its location, and clean the GPS out of a photo that already has it.
- Remove the author and company from Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Where Word, Excel and PowerPoint store the author, last editor and company, how to remove them with Document Inspector on Windows and on a Mac, and what it misses.
- Remove the author and "Last modified by" from an Excel file
Where an Excel workbook keeps the author, the last person who saved it and the company, how to remove them with Document Inspector, and what else in a workbook names people.
- Remove the author from a Word document
How to see and remove the author, last modified by and company in a Word document, change the name Word writes into new files, and catch the names in comments and tracked changes.
- See and remove the metadata in a PDF
How to read a PDF's author, title, creator program and dates, remove them with Acrobat Pro or on the command line, and why editing the fields is not always enough.
- What a photo carries: EXIF, XMP and IPTC
The real field names in a photo's EXIF, XMP and IPTC data: GPS position, camera make and serial number, dates, creator and city. What each one says and which to keep.
- What Facebook Marketplace and eBay do with photo metadata
What Meta and eBay say they collect from the photos you upload, what they do not promise to remove, and how to test any marketplace yourself before you list.
- Check a file is clean before you send it
How to read the metadata in a photo, an Office document or a PDF on Windows, Mac and the command line, and a short list of what to look for before a file goes out.
- Remove Content Credentials and AI labels from an image
What the C2PA Content Credentials in a photo or AI image record, who adds them, how to see them, how to remove them, and what removing them does not change.
- Remove tracked changes and comments before you send a document
Hiding markup in Word does not remove it. How to accept every change, delete every comment and check the file before a contract or a draft goes to the other side.
- Anonymize a manuscript for double-blind peer review
What journals ask you to remove for double-anonymized review, where your name hides in a Word or PDF file, and how to check the file reviewers will receive.
- Check your CV file before you send it
What a CV in Word or PDF can say about you besides what is on the page: comments from whoever reviewed it, old wording in tracked changes, editing time and a revealing file name.
- Photos taken at home: what they give away when you post them
A photo taken at home can carry your address as GPS coordinates. How to stop your phone recording it, how to clean photos you have already taken, and what metadata cannot hide.