Does WhatsApp delete EXIF Data From Phone?
If you are more concerned about your private information stored as EXIF data when you click any picture, sharing it via social media tools is a better option. Most of the social media platforms while sharing images removed the metadata and other related information in order to crop and compress the image.
This is a good way to share pictures when you wish to maintain your privacy about the details like location, time, geo-tagging, size, etc from the other person. However, it may be a negative for many of us too.
We all share pictures through all modes of communication and WhatsApp is the most used messaging platform which we use to share images. Well if you too have this question in mind that whether WhatsApp deletes EXIF data from the phone, this article might help you.
Yes, WhatsApp does remove EXIF data from the pictures you share across. This is what the majority believes and finds true. While it is true to some extent, it does not mean that it is not possible to share pictures without the EXIF data. When you share pictures normally the metadata gets removed as the image gets compressed. However when attached as a document WhatsApp preserves the Metadata and you can easily see all the attributes like geo-location, size, time, etc related to the image.
What Is EXIF Data?
Exchangeable Image File Format abbreviated as EXIF data is a collection of data that encompasses different attributes related to a digital picture. Whenever we click any picture with a digital camera or a smartphone, the images contain multiple details like the size, date, time, geo-location, copyright details, etc which is referred to as EXIF data.
Since these images contain a lot of information, if compromised can be used as a source of threat as it contains a lot of information. This is one of the reasons why social media platforms including WhatsApp remove EXIF data from the images while sharing.
Another interesting thing in addition to it is that we can also choose to alter the EXIF data if we do not want to share the correct information.
Does WhatsApp delete EXIF Data From the Phone?
Let us now see what information gets shared when we share pictures using WhatsApp directly and when we share the images as attachments.
In a normal manner, WhatsApp compresses the images removing almost all the important attributes of an image.
However, if you do not want to compress the image and wish to send the entire metadata also, attach the image as a document, Doing so, will not remove any details and share the image in the same size.
How To Edit EXIF Data:
Now if you wish to edit, alter, or even delete the EXIF data you can also use some handy tools and the best EXIF viewer and editor tool likePhotos Exif Editor. This nifty tool is easy to use and can easilyview,edit and remove the EXIF data as per your requirements.
The entire process consists of only three steps:
- Add the image,
- Edit the metadata and
- Save the edited image.
Let us now see how to use the Photos Exif Editor tool:
1. Drag The Pictures or Add Files/Folders:
This is yet the easiest way to add pictures you want to edit using this tool. Many of us have a habit of having pictures scattered all over the PC and hence the drag and drop feature works best under these conditions. Users can also add files or folders for the images they wish to edit the EXIF data for.
2. Edit The Metadata:
Photos Exif editor is the best EXIF viewer tool that allows a user to easily view and edit all the data related to a picture including the EXIF data. IPTC and even XMP metadata. All these data are crucial for a picture and can be modified, altered, or even deleted as per requirement. With Photos Exif Editor you can:
- Easily Modify the Edited fields keeping the other untouched.
- Easily Modify the Edited fields and remove the other fields.
- Remove the metadata information.
This signifies that users can easily edit the metadata as per choice and can easily remove the entire EXIF data if they are concerned about their privacy.
After you have altered the metadata, the properties of the newly saved image will reflect as per the changes.
Photos Exif Editor also gives you the option to restore the changes done to the metadata through the Restore Exif info option.
If you highly vary of your security and do not want to reveal any information about the picture, you can also delete the entire metadata using this best EXIF viewer and editor tool.
We all are concerned about security and privacy and do not want others to misuse it. While using social media platforms and messaging platforms like WhatsApp removes EXIF data there are still ways using which you can send the images with the metadata.
If you want to edit or remove EXIF data you must always use the best Exif viewer and editor tool. Photos Exif Editor is one such amazing tool that lets you modify, alter, and even delete metadata as per users convenience.