The Pros and Cons of Stripping EXIF Data from Your Images

Professional photographers deal with EXIF on a daily basis. EXIF data is stored in the physical file of the image, and to access it, you need to use specific softwares based on the device you are using to view the metadata.

Some EXIF data is recorded by the device used to capture the image, while some are added later to the file, mainly for security and privacy concerns.

EXIF data can be edited as well as scrapped completely, and there are several ways of doing it.

This article will discuss what will happen if you choose to scrape off the EXIF data from an image and the pros and cons of Stripping EXIF data from your images.

Removing EXIF data from your photos can be done both manually or with tools or software specifically designed for this task. While there are some advantages to eliminating EXIF information from photos, there may also be potential drawbacks you should take into account.

Here are some pros and cons you should weigh:

Pros:

Maintains Your Privacy

EXIF data can contain sensitive personal information, such as the location of a photograph, that may not be ideal for publishing publicly. By removing EXIF data from photographs, you are protecting your personal data.

Reduces File Size

EXIF data can add a considerable amount of information to an image, potentially increasing its size. By eliminating EXIF data from an image, however, you are able to reduce its size significantly - useful when needing to conserve space or accelerate load times.

Exif Data Can Be Eliminating Copyright Concerns

In certain instances, EXIF data may contain information regarding who owns the image copyright or exclusive details. By eliminating this EXIF data from your image file, you will completely eliminate any potential disputes over copyright or other issues.

Cons

Data That Is No Longer Useful

EXIF data contains useful information about an image, such as its camera settings, date/time taken, and GPS coordinates. Erase this data, and you won't have it anymore - which could be important for businesses, photographers, or anyone looking to track their photos.

Decreased Search Engine Visibility

Search engine visibility can be drastically decreased without proper EXIF information in your photos.

When including EXIF data in your photos, search engines gain more context and details regarding what your website contains.

By removing this data, images may become less visible on results pages.

Retrieval Becomes Difficult

One of the most prominent cons of stripping EXIF data from images is that without any data on it, the retrieval of images becomes difficult, almost impossible.

There is just so much circulating on the internet that if an image gets lost in it, it will be like finding a needle in a stack of hay.

Stripping images off its EXIF data will also create sharing and organization problems.

Editing Becomes Difficult

Some image editing software programs, however, rely on EXIF information for making specific adjustments or corrections to an image. Without this data, you might not be able to make certain kinds of edits in the picture.

Now that you know the pros and cons of stripping EXIF data from your images, the decision to remove EXIF data from your photos depends on personal preferences and needs. Make an informed decision.

If privacy, file size, or copyright concerns are paramount, opting out could be your best bet.

Conversely, if keeping essential details about your photographs or improving SEO rankings is more important to you, keeping EXIF data may prove more advantageous in the long run.