Phone photos usually contain the GPS coordinates of where they were taken, stored as hidden EXIF data inside the file. To remove it, re-save the photo with a tool that strips that data: in the JFDI image editor, open the photos and download them, because Remove location and camera details is on by default. On an iPhone, you can also turn location off for one share using Options at the top of the share sheet.
What’s hidden in a photo
Besides the picture itself, a typical phone photo file holds:
- Location: latitude and longitude, often accurate to a few metres, plus altitude and the direction the camera faced.
- Date and time, to the second.
- Camera details: phone model, lens and settings.
- A small preview image, generated when the photo was taken. If you crop the photo in some apps, this preview can still show the uncropped original.
A photo taken at home and posted to a forum or sent as a file can tell a stranger your address.
How to check whether a photo has a location
- In the image editor, open the photo: the line under the preview says if it contains a location.
- On Windows: right-click the file › Properties › Details, and look for a GPS section.
- On a Mac: open it in Preview, choose Tools › Show Inspector, and look for a GPS tab.
- On an iPhone: open the photo in Photos and swipe up. A map means it has a location.
Remove it from one photo or hundreds
- Open the image editor and drop in your photos.
- Check that Remove location and camera details is ticked (it is by default), under Names and details. There’s also a Remove location button on the start page that sets this up for you.
- Leave the other settings as they are if you only want to strip the data, or resize and compress at the same time.
- Download all (ZIP).
The location, date, camera details and the hidden preview image are all removed. Nothing is uploaded: the photos are processed in your browser, which is rather the point when the thing you’re hiding is where you live.
If you’ve changed nothing else and re-saving a photo would make it bigger, the editor keeps the original image data and just removes the hidden details.
Removing it as you share
- iPhone: in the share sheet, tap Options at the top and switch Location off. This applies to that share only.
- Android: Google Photos has a setting to remove location from photos you share by link, under its sharing settings. Other gallery apps vary.
- Stop recording it: on an iPhone, Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Camera › Never. On Android, turn off location tags in the camera app’s settings. You’ll lose the map view of your own photos, which some people like.
Do social networks remove it?
The biggest social networks generally strip location data from the copy of a photo that other people see. But plenty of routes keep it intact:
- email attachments
- files sent as documents in chat apps, rather than as photos
- links to cloud storage folders
- forums, marketplaces and smaller sites that store the original file
Don’t rely on the platform: strip it yourself before sharing anything sensitive, such as photos of your home, your children’s school or a car with its number plate.
Videos too
Phone videos record a location as well. The JFDI file converter removes it by default when converting a video (untick Remove the location under More options to keep it), while keeping the recording date so the video stays in the right place in your library. See how to convert MOV to MP4.