Remove location data

Privacy is important, but the modern world proves some really useful tools in attaching tracing data into things like images so that when you find a photo in a directory many years from now, you can place it to a point on the earth with a time stamp.

So, how do you tally these two contradictory needs? Well, I keep my original photos and publish versions that have the location removed.

Linux is your friend here, with a tool "exiftool".

Find files with meta data

exiftool -gps* */* > myList

Produces a "myList" of files with the meta data. I tend to lose the other files I am not interested in, but that's to do as little as possible! Images can be chunky, especially as some sites, like wordpress, already produce thumbnails and other copies.

Remove the meta data

cd to_directory_with_images_with_meta_data_to_remove

exiftool "-gps*=" *

cd ..

Work through all the directories. exiftool retains the original, so go and remove these once all the files have been processed.

rm `find . -name *_original`

Now copy over the new files to where you are publishing them.