What a geotag gives away
A phone writes latitude and longitude into the photo file, usually accurate to within a few metres, and often the altitude too. Pasted into any map, that is not a neighbourhood — it is a building, and sometimes a floor.
For a photo taken at home that is your address. For a photo of a child it is where that child is on a weekday morning. Several photos together sketch a routine: where you were, at what time, how often.
Where it tends to leak
Selling something online is the common one. A photo of a bike in the hallway carries the hallway, so a buyer can know which building you live in before they message you.
The others are quieter. A photo sent to one person who forwards it. An image attached to a support ticket. A picture posted to a hobby forum under a name you do not use anywhere else. Each one carries the same coordinates.
Turning it off is not retroactive
Disabling location for the camera on your phone is worth doing, and it only affects photos you take from that point on. Everything already in your library keeps the coordinates it was saved with.
This tool works on the file you have now, whatever recorded it, and it removes the rest of the metadata at the same time rather than only the coordinates.
Questions
- How do I know if my photo has location data?
- Drop it in above. If coordinates are present they are shown before you do anything, along with everything else the file is carrying.
- Does turning off location services fix old photos?
- No. It stops new photos being tagged. Photos already on your phone keep the coordinates that were written when they were taken.
- Can location be worked out from the picture itself?
- Sometimes, yes — a street sign, a house number, a view from a window. Stripping the coordinates does not help if the frame gives it away, which is why cropping and covering are part of the same tool.
- Does this work on iPhone and Android photos?
- Yes, for any JPEG, PNG or WEBP file. HEIC works in browsers that can decode it, which in practice means Safari.