Strip metadata from a whole folder at once
When you publish or hand over many images — case evidence, field photos, press assets — each one can quietly carry GPS coordinates, device serial numbers, timestamps, and editing history. Cleaning them individually is tedious and easy to get wrong. This redactor takes the entire batch in one drop and returns a ZIP of metadata-free copies.
How it works
Image metadata lives in marker blocks (EXIF, IPTC, XMP) stored separately from the compressed pixels. The redactor removes them by re-encoding rather than by editing the markers directly:
- Each image is decoded into a bitmap and drawn onto a
<canvas>. - The canvas is exported back to a JPEG, PNG, or WebP. Because a canvas export emits only the raw pixels, every metadata block is dropped.
- Cleaned files are collected and bundled into a single ZIP with JSZip for one-click download.
Images are processed one after another so peak memory stays low even with a hundred files in the queue.
What metadata gets removed
A typical JPEG taken on a modern smartphone can contain more than a hundred EXIF fields. The most privacy-sensitive include:
| Metadata field | What it reveals |
|---|---|
| GPS latitude/longitude | Exact location where the photo was taken |
| GPS altitude | Elevation and floor level |
| DateTimeOriginal | Exact date and time of capture |
| Make / Model | Phone or camera manufacturer and model |
| CameraSerialNumber | Unique device identifier |
| Software | Editing app and version used |
| Artist / Copyright | Creator name or attribution |
| XMP history | Full edit history including original file path |
After re-encoding through a canvas, all of these are absent from the output.
Batch workflow for journalists and legal professionals
For case photography or court evidence, a consistent chain-of-custody workflow matters. A recommended approach:
- Import all evidence images into a dedicated folder.
- Drop the entire folder here and allow processing to complete.
- Download the ZIP, verify the file count matches, and open a random sample to confirm EXIF is absent (right-click → Get Info / Properties shows no location data).
- Distribute the cleaned ZIP rather than the originals.
Tips and notes
- GPS is the highest-risk field. Phone photos frequently embed exact latitude and longitude — bulk redaction removes it from every file consistently, whereas manual editing risks missing individual files.
- Pick PNG for lossless output. JPEG re-encoding introduces a small amount of additional compression. PNG is lossless and appropriate when preserving maximum pixel fidelity matters.
- Names are de-duplicated in the ZIP, so two files with the same base name will not overwrite each other.
- No re-upload risk. Everything runs locally in your browser using the File API and Canvas API. The images never leave your device, which is what makes this appropriate for confidential, legally sensitive, or embargoed material.