What Your Videos and Photos Reveal: Metadata Before You Share
Phone-shot files carry metadata: capture time, device model, sometimes GPS coordinates. Whether that travels with the file should be your choice — it differs hugely between uploading to a platform and sending to one person.
What's inside
- Capture time: usually present in both video and photos.
- Device model: common in both.
- GPS location: depends on camera app permission; can be precise.
- Shooting parameters: full EXIF (aperture, shutter, ISO) on photos.
Who reads it
Social platforms strip or rewrite metadata during their re-encode; the location shown is the one you typed, not the file's GPS.
Direct person-to-person sends (chat apps, mail) deliver the file untouched — metadata intact. This is the path worth caring about.
Cloud drives and second-hand file circulation keep metadata until it's actively stripped or re-encoded.
Check and strip
View metadata in file properties, or read it fully with a metadata tool. Strip field-by-field or wipe everything in one pass — on a copy, keeping an archived original for yourself.
The nuclear option: any re-encode (compression, format change) naturally drops most container metadata.