Show HN: I made a tool to strip GPS and EXIF metadata from photos client-side | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: I made a tool to strip GPS and EXIF metadata from photos client-side

metarefresh.net

3 pointsBenjaminHas10 comments

Hi HN, I’m the creator of this tool.

I built it because I noticed that most photos contain metadata that people often don’t realize — things like GPS location, device info, timestamps, and other hidden EXIF fields. This can be a privacy concern or a nuisance if you just want to repurpose your images.

The tool lets you:

Strip GPS, device info, and other EXIF metadata

Edit or replace metadata for reuse

Process everything locally on your machine, so nothing is uploaded to any server

I focused on keeping it simple, fast, and secure, and I’d love feedback from HN on:

UX improvements

Edge cases in metadata handling

Any additional features that could make it more useful for developers or privacy-conscious users

I’m happy to dive into technical details about how it parses and edits EXIF data client-side if anyone is interested.

Open articleView on HN

Nice work. Client-side stripping is especially important for privacy, since you don’t have to trust a server with the original image.

I ran into a similar problem from the opposite angle and ended up building ExifLooter. It focuses on discovering EXIF and geolocation data at scale across image URLs and directories, integrates with OpenStreetMap for visualization, and also includes a metadata-removal feature for cleanup after analysis.

Interesting to see more tools pushing awareness that image metadata is still an underrated privacy leak.

Also it is official on Kali Linux.

- https://github.com/aydinnyunus/exiflooter?tab=readme-ov-file...

Thanks for sharing, runtimepanic! ExifLooter looks really interesting! I like how it tackles EXIF and geolocation at scale and integrates with OpenStreetMap. That kind of tool is definitely complementary to what I built with MetaRefresh.

I completely agree... metadata leaks are still widely underestimated, and it’s great to see tools raising awareness while giving users control.

I've seen this happen a lot — tools aren’t the problem, it's the decisions around them that never get revisited.

Agreed. In this case the bigger issue isn’t the tool itself, but awareness. Most people don’t even realize photo metadata exists or what it can expose. The decisions around sharing images get made without that context, and they rarely get revisited.

If it's fully client-side, why do I need to sign up for an account..?

does it do anything you can’t do in a photo editor?

Good question! Most photo editors don’t give you full control over all metadata fields, like GPS, device info, timestamps, or custom tags. Also, most people don’t even know how to remove it manually. MetaRefresh lets you strip or edit everything client-side, and we offer an auto-edit mode for convenience.

Even if not, a photo editor is usually nonfree and/or is a pain in the ass to download and install.

Totally, that’s exactly why I made it. No installs, no downloads, and free. Metadata cleanup in seconds, zero hassle.

but if it runs entirely client side, why not just distrubute it as a standalone app?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com