Remove private information from files and photos

By Ed Bott

When you share a file or photo, are you inadvertently sharing more than you thought? Metadata in business-related documents can leak names of authors and editors. Metadata in photos can include location information, including the exact location of your home or office, that you probably don't want to post on social media for all to see.

Fortunately, Windows offers a handy way to strip out all that sensitive metadata with just a few clicks.

Start in File Explorer (Windows Explorer in Windows 7). Select the file or files you want to sanitize and then click Properties. Click the Details tab and then click the Remove Properties And Personal Information link at the bottom of the tab.

That action opens the Remove Properties dialog box, with two available options. The default option creates a copy of the selected file with all possible properties removed. The second option lets you select exactly which properties you want to remove, without creating a new copy. Click Select All and then click OK to remove all metadata from the current file.

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