A Metadata Privacy Checklist Before You Share Files

Before sharing photos, videos or PDFs, it is worth checking what hidden data they carry. AI Metadata Cleaner is a free privacy tool for that check.

If you want to try it while reading, start with AI Metadata Cleaner official site. The notes below cover what the tool does, how to use it, and where its limits are.

A quick checklist

Look for GPS location, camera and lens details, timestamps, author names and software fields. For images, also check whether C2PA Content Credentials are present. Detect Mode shows all of this without changing the file.

Key features

• MP4, MOV and WebM videos up to 100 MB each
• PDF cleaning of Title, Author, Creator, Producer, timestamps and XMP streams
• Batches of up to 20 images, 3 videos or 10 PDFs with ZIP download
• Processing runs on your device; files are not uploaded
• Free, no account, no watermark
• Read-only Detect Mode that audits a file without changing it

How to use it

1. Open the tool and add the files you want to check.
2. Start in Detect Mode to see which metadata each file carries.
3. Decide what you are comfortable sharing, such as removing GPS before posting.
4. Switch to Clean Mode to strip the metadata.
5. Download the cleaned files, or a ZIP archive for a batch.

Who it is for

• People selling items online who do not want to share their home location
• Creators checking what provenance data a file carries before publishing
• Teams clearing author and software fields from PDFs before sending them out
• Photographers who want to review EXIF before sharing

FAQ

Can I just look without changing anything?

Yes. Detect Mode is read-only.

Is it free?

Yes. There is no account, no login and no watermark.

Are my files uploaded?

No. Images re-encode through HTML5 Canvas, RAW decodes via WebAssembly, video remuxes with ffmpeg.wasm and PDFs rebuild with pdf-lib, all in the browser.

What is C2PA?

C2PA Content Credentials are provenance data that can record how a file was created or edited. The tool can show whether a file carries them.

Honest limits

AI Metadata Cleaner is a privacy and provenance-inspection tool. It shows and removes metadata stored in a file; it does not edit the visible image and it is not a way to hide how an image was made. Use Detect Mode first, and keep the original if you may need its provenance record later.