Precise location data leaks into text more often than people realize — copied from a maps app, extracted from photo EXIF data, pasted out of GPS logs, or embedded in shared documents. The Geolocation Data Scrubber finds these machine-readable location identifiers and replaces them with generalized descriptions so you can share or process the text without exposing exactly where someone is.
How it works
The tool scans your text for several common location formats. Decimal coordinate pairs like 51.5074, -0.1278 are rounded to one decimal place, which collapses precision to roughly an 11 km grid square — enough to know the city, not the doorstep. Plus Codes (Google’s Open Location Code), what3words addresses such as ///filled.count.soap, UK postcodes, and US ZIP+4 codes are flagged and removed entirely, since these resolve to small, identifiable areas.
Every match is listed with its original value and the replacement applied, so you can verify nothing important was changed and nothing sensitive was missed.
Location formats that leak most often
Decimal coordinates from maps apps. When you copy a location from Google Maps, Apple Maps, or most navigation apps, the clipboard often contains a decimal lat/lon pair. These land in emails, Slack messages, and documents without the sender thinking of them as “personal data,” but they can resolve to a specific building or room.
what3words addresses. Services that deliver to a 3-word address — rideshares, rural deliveries, events — embed a what3words identifier that resolves to a 3-metre square. Sharing the words publicly or pasting them into a support ticket reveals an exact location.
UK postcodes and US ZIP+4 codes. A full UK postcode covers about 15 addresses on average; a US ZIP+4 identifies a specific block face. Both are commonly used in customer records and support tickets without being recognized as precise locators.
Open Location Codes (Plus Codes). Google’s Open Location Code system encodes a geographic area as a short alphanumeric string like 9C3X+RW London. Full codes identify areas smaller than a room.
Practical scenarios for the scrubber
- Before sending logs to a third-party support service. Application logs often contain GPS coordinates from mobile clients. Scrub them before attaching to a helpdesk ticket.
- Before pasting text into a public AI chatbot. Your conversations with external AI models may be retained for training. Coordinates and postcodes in your prompt identify real locations and people.
- Before publishing incident reports or case studies. Removing precise locations from before-and-after descriptions protects the privacy of people mentioned in the report.
- Before sharing field notes across teams. Survey coordinates and site addresses are often embedded in raw field notes shared without review.
Tips and notes
Run text through the scrubber before pasting it into a third-party AI tool, support ticket, or public post. Coordinates frequently arrive bundled with photo metadata or log exports without the author noticing them.
Remember that this is a pattern matcher, not a comprehension engine — it will not catch a location written out in plain prose, only structured identifiers. Always read the scrubbed output yourself before publishing. Because everything runs in your browser, the tool is safe to use on confidential material.