Examine Metadata
Control what your files say about you
Every photo your phone takes embeds hidden information: often the exact spot where you took it, the phone that took it, and the exact time you took it. Documents carry the author's name and company. None of it shows when you open the file, but all of it goes along when you share the file.
Examine Metadata shows you this information and removes it before the file leaves your hands. We have made two apps, one for your phone and one for your computer. Both work entirely on your own device and never connect to the internet.
Examine Metadata is published by Pur-N-Kleen Water Company, LLC. There are no investors, no ad networks and no data to sell, just two programs that do their job and do it carefully, for you.
| Android $4.99 a year or $14.99 | for photos on your phone: see what a photo gives away, then share a clean copy in one tap. Sanitize your first 3 photos free, then choose $4.99 a year or a one-time payment of $14.99. Coming soon to Google Play. |
| Windows $20 | for any file on your computer: read, edit, scramble or remove every hidden field in photos, documents, PDFs and audio. $20, a one-time payment, for up to 3 computers, yours for good. Coming soon. |
What a photo says about you
When your phone takes a picture, it saves more than just the picture. Alongside the image it writes a set of hidden notes, called metadata. A typical phone photo carries dozens of them: the date and time to the second, the exact spot where you were standing, usually accurate to a few feet, the make and model of the phone, which of its cameras took the shot and with what settings, and often your altitude and the direction you were facing.
You can't see any of this information when you look at the photo. The metadata doesn't appear in your gallery, in a text message or in an email. But it is written into the file, and it goes wherever the file goes, until something removes it. Anyone who gets the original file can read all of it in a few seconds, with free tools or just by opening the file's properties on a computer.
Show everything inside one phone photo
An ordinary phone photo, listed the way a metadata tool reads it: 45 fields. The field names are real; the values are made up.
$ examine 20260815_195812.jpg [File] File Name : 20260815_195812.jpg [File] File Size : 3.4 MB [File] Image Size : 4000x3000 [EXIF] Make : samsung [EXIF] Camera Model Name : Galaxy S24 [EXIF] Software : S921USQU2AXH1 [EXIF] Orientation : Rotate 90 CW [EXIF] Date/Time Original : 2026:08:15 19:58:12 [EXIF] Create Date : 2026:08:15 19:58:12 [EXIF] Modify Date : 2026:08:15 19:58:12 [EXIF] Sub Sec Time Original : 482 [EXIF] Offset Time Original : -04:00 [EXIF] Exposure Program : Program AE [EXIF] Exposure Time : 1/120 [EXIF] F Number : 1.8 [EXIF] ISO : 50 [EXIF] Focal Length : 6.3 mm [EXIF] Focal Length In 35mm Format : 24 mm [EXIF] Flash : Off, Did not fire [EXIF] White Balance : Auto [EXIF] Metering Mode : Center-weighted average [EXIF] Brightness Value : 7.81 [EXIF] Scene Capture Type : Standard [EXIF] Image Unique ID : J12LLKA00SM [GPS] GPS Version ID : 2.2.0.0 [GPS] GPS Latitude Ref : North [GPS] GPS Latitude : 40 deg 44' 54.38" [GPS] GPS Longitude Ref : West [GPS] GPS Longitude : 73 deg 59' 8.38" [GPS] GPS Altitude Ref : Above Sea Level [GPS] GPS Altitude : 14 m [GPS] GPS Date Stamp : 2026:08:15 [GPS] GPS Time Stamp : 23:58:11 [GPS] GPS Img Direction Ref : Magnetic North [GPS] GPS Img Direction : 212 [GPS] GPS H Positioning Error : 4.2 m [Composite] GPS Position : 40 deg 44' 54.38" N, 73 deg 59' 8.38" W [Composite] Date/Time Original : 2026:08:15 19:58:12.482-04:00 [Composite] Light Value : 9.0 [Samsung] Time Stamp : 2026:08:15 19:58:12.482-04:00 [Samsung] MCC Data : United States / Guam (310) [XMP] Creator Tool : Galaxy S24 [XMP] Date Created : 2026:08:15 19:58:12 [IFD1] Thumbnail Image : (Binary data 45120 bytes) [ICC] Profile Description : sRGB IEC61966-2.1 45 hidden fields. None of them visible in the photo.
Some large social networks strip the location out when you post. Many other ways of sending a photo don't: text messages, email attachments, photos sent as files or documents, shared cloud links, and plenty of online marketplaces, forums and smaller sites. There is no way to be sure that a dating site, a marketplace or a messaging app is protecting your private details, or when those companies will change their policies. Unless you know exactly what happens to a photo after you send it, the safe assumption is that your hidden information goes along with it.
Who should care
Anyone who sends photos to people they don't know well, or to places they don't control. Some everyday cases:
- Selling something online
- You photograph the couch in your living room and post the listing. That photo can carry the location of your home, readable by every stranger who opens the listing, not just the buyer.
- Vacation and travel
- Your photos can reveal the exact date, time and place each one was taken. A photo posted while you're away tells people where you are, which also tells them you aren't home.
- Meeting someone new
- Photos sent on a dating app or to someone you met online can carry the location of your home or your work, long before you'd choose to share either one.
- Photos of your children
- Pictures taken at home, at school or at practice carry those places too. They are worth a clean copy before they go to a group chat or a class page.
- Reporting a crime, or a hazard at work
- When you photograph a crime, a suspicious situation or a hazard at work, you shouldn't have to give up your privacy to do it. But the photo records when it was taken, down to the second, along with details that identify your phone. How hard would it be for your boss to work out who took it, knowing what time you were there? Send a clean copy and keep the original, which the app never changes.
- Work and business
- Photos of a site, a product or a whiteboard sent to clients can carry the location of your office, or of the home you work from.
Most photos are harmless to share. The trouble is that you can't tell which ones by looking. Examine Metadata shows you exactly what a photo carries before you send it, and makes a clean copy when you'd rather be in control of what your photos say about you.
Examine Metadata for Android
Share a photo to it from your gallery, or pick one in the app. It shows where the photo was taken, on a map drawn on your phone, plus which phone took it, when, and every other hidden field. Then tap Sanitize & share: the app makes a clean copy, checks the copy, and hands it to the app you choose. Your original is never changed.
| See before you share | the exact spot on a map, how far it is from you, the time to the minute, the phone, and every other hidden field. |
| Sanitize & share | a clean copy without the hidden data, sent straight to messages, email or any other app, or saved to your photos. |
| Remove location only | removes the position and place names but keeps the date and phone, for when you want those to stay. |
| Checked, not assumed | the app reads each copy back before calling it clean. If something cannot be removed, it says so and keeps no copy. |
| No internet permission | no account needed, no ads, no tracking. The app connects to nothing and collects no data. |
| Formats | JPEG, PNG and WebP. HEIC photos are saved as JPEG. AVIF needs Android 12 or later. |
| Languages | more than 75. |
or a one-time payment of $14.99
The first 3 photos are free. Either plan covers every photo after that, and doing several at once.
Seeing what a photo gives away is always free. No ads, no tracking.
Coming soon to Google Play.
Remember: the picture itself can still give things away: faces, tattoos, the features of a room. The app removes the hidden data, not what's in the picture.
Examine Metadata for Windows
For any file on your computer: photos, documents, PDFs and audio. Right-click a file, choose Examine metadata, and every hidden field is on screen, ready to read, edit, scramble or sanitize. Version 0.6.0, Windows 10 and 11.
Features
Everything below works on one file or on a whole selection at once.
| Sanitize, location only | remove GPS coordinates, altitude and place names, and keep camera settings and dates. |
| Sanitize, everything | remove all personal metadata the format allows: authors, comments, thumbnails, software names, editing history, cover art, tags. |
| Sanitize report | reads each file back after the change, lists every field removed and says whether anything is left. |
| Scramble | replace every writable field with random values in Hex, Unicode or Mixed style. Nothing is written until you save. |
| Edit any field | double-click a value to change it. Writable fields are listed first. |
| Date and time picker | calendar, time spinners, ±1 day and ±1 hour buttons, and Copy from another date field. |
| Many files at once | select fifty photos, set the copyright once, save once. Fields that differ show multiple values. |
| Windows properties | the fields from Explorer's Properties > Details tab, editable in the same window, including created, modified and accessed dates. |
| Hundreds of formats | JPEG, PNG, TIFF, HEIC, camera RAW, PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, MP3, FLAC, MP4, MOV and many more, read by the bundled ExifTool engine. |
| Right-click menu | Examine metadata on files, folders and folder backgrounds in Explorer. |
| Keep backup | keep the untouched original, so Restore original can put it back. Off by default. |
| Field filter | type gps, date or author to narrow the list. |
| Keyboard shortcuts | F2 save, F3 discard, F4 add tag, F6 restore, F7 sanitize, F8 scramble. |
| Offline | no network connections, no account, no license server, no telemetry. |
Screenshots
The main window. Files on the left, everything they know on the right.
Sanitize
The same photo before and after Sanitize, location only, with the field filter set to gps. The camera, lens and date are untouched.
The report, written after reading the file back.
Scramble
Editing dates
Many files at once
Three photos selected. Edits apply to all of them.
Sample photos
These three pictures are free to download. Each carries the kind of metadata a real camera or phone writes. Open one in any metadata viewer and look at what's inside.
Camera Canon EOS R6 Lens RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM Taken 2024-08-17 19:42:10 -07:00 GPS 46.8523 N, 121.7603 W City Ashford
Camera Apple iPhone 15 Pro Lens back triple camera f/1.78 Taken 2025-01-04 21:13:55 -05:00 GPS 40.7003 N, 74.0124 W
Camera FUJIFILM X-T5 Lens XF80mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR Macro Taken 2025-05-21 10:05:31 +09:00 GPS 35.0116 N, 135.7681 E
Price
Perpetual license. A one-time payment. No subscription, no renewal, no account.
Install on up to 3 computers you own.
Coming soon.
| System | Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit |
| Disk space | About 100 MB |
| Install | Standard installer, no administrator rights needed. Uninstall from Settings > Apps. |
| Internet | Not needed after the download |
Privacy
Most software you install today works for somebody besides you. It notes where you are, what you tap and how long you stay, and passes that along to whoever pays for it. You get the app; they get you.
Examine Metadata works for you and nobody else. The Android app has no internet permission, so Android itself will not let it connect to anything. You don't have to take that on faith: the permission list is on its Play Store page, and your phone shows it too. The Windows program makes no network connections at all: no account, no license server, no update check, no analytics. Its log records errors only, never file names.
What you open stays on your device. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is counted, and nobody is watching. There is no account to create, no email address to hand over, no advertising, and no "free" version paid for with your data. You pay for the app, you get exactly what is described on this page, and it keeps doing the same thing for as long as you use it.
That ought to be ordinary. It isn't anymore. Look at the permissions of a few apps on your phone and you will see the difference.
This web page sets no cookies and loads nothing from any other site.
Examine Metadata for Android: privacy policy
Examine Metadata for Android: terms of use
Questions
- Is there an iPhone or Mac version?
- No. There is an Android app and a Windows program.
- Do I need both?
- No. The Android app is for photos on your phone before you send them. The Windows program is for any file on your computer, and it can also edit fields, not just remove them.
- What happens after the 3 free photos on Android?
- You can still see what any photo gives away, free and as often as you like. Making more clean copies, or several at once, takes one of the two plans: $4.99 a year, or a one-time payment of $14.99.
- Can it damage my files?
- Photo, document and audio tags are written to a new copy that replaces the original only once it is complete, so an interrupted save does not leave half a file. But editing and sanitizing are meant to change files, and some changes cannot be undone. Turn on Keep backup, or work on copies, if you might want the original back.
- Does Sanitize get everything?
- It removes everything ExifTool and Windows can write in that format, and the report says plainly when a format has only partial coverage. File system dates (created, modified) belong to Windows rather than the file; you can set them, but not delete them.
- Is it a forensic tool?
- It is not certified as one. It shows far more than Explorer does, but if a file may be evidence, work on a verified copy.
- Do I get updates?
- Your license never expires. The version you buy keeps working for as long as Windows runs it.
- Why does Windows warn me when I run the installer?
- The installer is not yet code-signed, so SmartScreen may say it doesn't recognize it. Choose More info, then Run anyway. The download page lists a SHA-256 checksum if you'd like to verify the file first.