Why we write these guides
Metadata is the part of a file that most people never see and rarely think about — and that is precisely what makes it dangerous. A photographer can crop a sensitive detail out of an image and still ship the GPS coordinates of where it was taken. A lawyer can redact a contract's visible text and still hand over the tracked-change history showing what was negotiated away. A consultant can deliver a deck under a client's logo while the file quietly names the agency that built it. None of this is exotic; it happens constantly, because the tools people use every day hide this data by default and rarely surface it.
These guides exist to close that knowledge gap. Each one takes a single format or scenario and explains, in plain language, three things: what metadata the format carries, why that specific metadata can cause real harm, and what you can actually do about it. We avoid fear-mongering and we avoid hand-waving — where a technical detail matters, we show you the structure or the math behind it, so you can verify the claim rather than take it on faith.
How to think about file privacy
The single most useful mental model is that file privacy is layered, not binary. Removing metadata is one layer. It is an important one, and for most everyday sharing it is the layer people are missing. But it sits alongside others: redacting visible content, controlling who receives the file, stripping identifying information from the channel you send it over, and understanding that some platforms re-add their own tracking after upload.
A helpful way to reason about any file you are about to share is to ask three questions in order. First: what can someone read on the surface? That is the visible content, handled by redaction. Second: what can someone read underneath? That is metadata, handled by tools like this one. Third: what does the act of sending reveal? That is the channel — the email headers, the IP address, the upload logs — handled by how and where you transmit the file. A guide that only addresses one layer while ignoring the others gives a false sense of safety, which is why every article here is explicit about where metadata removal helps and where it does not.
Who these are for
The guides are written for a general audience first — anyone who shares photos, sends documents, or posts files online — with enough technical depth that professionals in law, journalism, human resources, and security will find them accurate rather than simplified to the point of being wrong. You do not need to understand file formats to act on the advice, but if you want to understand why the advice is correct, the detail is there.
New guides are added as we cover more formats and scenarios. If there is a topic you would find useful — a specific format, a specific risk, a specific workflow — the contact page is the fastest way to suggest it.