INITIALISATION DU SYSTÈME...
Every photo carries a hidden layer of metadata your eyes never see: the EXIF block records the camera model, lens, exposure and — most sensitive — the GPS coordinates where the shot was taken, while IPTC and XMP fields can hold your name, copyright, editing history and captions. GhostMeta reads all of it in your browser and shows you the full table before you strip anything, so you know precisely what you are about to erase. In a JPEG this data lives in APP marker segments (EXIF and XMP in APP1, IPTC in APP13); in a PNG the same information sits in tEXt, iTXt and eXIf chunks. GhostMeta parses each container in one pass and rebuilds a clean copy with the pixels re-encoded and every metadata field dropped — no camera trace, no coordinates, no author tag. Because the whole process runs on your device, the file is never uploaded to a server, so there is no copy to leak or log. Drop an image, review what was found, download the neutral version — that is the entire flow.
A photo carries four metadata layers: EXIF, IPTC, XMP and, increasingly, a C2PA provenance manifest. GhostMeta removes all of them in one pass, by re-encoding in the browser, without sending the file anywhere. What remains is the pixels: a face, a licence plate or a visible watermark are not affected.
"Metadata" covers at least four distinct formats living in the same file. EXIF comes from the camera. IPTC comes from the editorial chain and carries author, copyright, caption, sometimes city and country. XMP is Adobe's container, usually the most talkative, and it keeps the editing history. C2PA, the newest, embeds a signed provenance manifest.
A tool that handles EXIF only therefore leaves three layers behind. That is the common case: a GPS position can be duplicated in XMP, and clearing it on the EXIF side does not clear it.
GhostMeta rebuilds the image from its pixels. All four layers go together, including proprietary fields no allowlist would have anticipated. That is the advantage over tag-by-tag deletion: you cannot forget a field you do not know about.
The cost is a re-encode. A JPEG is recompressed, which is visually neutral at high quality but is not a lossless operation. Images are also capped at 4,096 pixels on their longest side, a limit that prevents memory crashes on mobile. If you need to archive an original, keep a copy before cleaning.
A cleaned photo can still identify you through its content. Before publishing, look at what is in frame: an envelope with an address, a lit screen, a badge, a reflection in glass or a window. No metadata removal touches any of that.
Think about the filename too, which is not metadata but travels with the image on most platforms. IMG_4821.jpg says nothing; quote-smith-march.jpg says a great deal.
| Layer | Typical content | Removed |
|---|---|---|
| EXIF | GPS, camera, date, settings | Yes |
| IPTC | Author, copyright, caption, city | Yes |
| XMP | Edit history, keywords, duplicated GPS | Yes |
| C2PA (JUMBF) | Signed provenance manifest | Yes, on JPEG and PNG |
| PNG text chunks | Prompt, seed, model name | Yes |
| Visible watermark | Logo or caption burned into pixels | No |
| Pixel-level watermark | SynthID and equivalents | No |
EXIF (camera, lens, timestamp, GPS coordinates), IPTC (author, copyright, captions), XMP (editing history, ratings) and any thumbnail embedded in those blocks. After processing, the downloaded copy carries none of them.
No. Reading and stripping happen entirely in your browser using the Canvas API. The image never leaves your device, so there is no server-side copy to store, log or leak.
JPEG and PNG are handled directly. HEIC photos from iPhone are converted in-browser first, then cleaned. WebP is also supported.
The visible picture stays the same to the eye. GhostMeta re-encodes the pixels to guarantee no metadata survives, so a JPEG is re-compressed once — quality is kept high, but it is not a byte-for-byte copy of the original file.
The GPS tag alone can reveal your home address from a single picture posted online. Stripping metadata before sharing on marketplaces, forums or social networks removes the location, device and identity trail.
Yes — cleaning a photo and viewing its metadata is free, with no account required. Premium adds batch processing and extra convenience, not the core privacy feature.