The hidden details inside your pictures, and how to see them before you share.
What a photo carries with it
A picture file holds more than the picture. Most phone cameras add a block of details called EXIF data. It can include:
- Where it was taken. GPS coordinates, if location tagging was on in your camera app. This is the detail that can show where you live, work or were on a given day.
- When it was taken, to the second.
- The camera or phone that took it, and sometimes the app or editor that saved it last.
You can’t see any of this by looking at the picture, and most gallery apps don’t show it. The details travel with the file when you send it as a file, post it somewhere that doesn’t clean it, or hand it to another app.
What Ciphergrove shows you
Open a photo in Ciphergrove, then its info, and the section What this photo reveals lists the location, the camera and the app that last saved it, or tells you that none were found. The details are read on your phone from the file in your vault, after it is decrypted for you, and are never sent anywhere.
These details stay inside the file. Ciphergrove does not remove them when you share or export a photo, so anyone who receives the original file can read them. The info screen is there so you know before you send.
What you can do
- Check a photo’s info before you share it, especially pictures taken at home or work.
- Turn off location tagging in your camera app if you don’t want a location saved in new photos.
- Many messaging apps and social sites remove these details when you send a picture the normal way, but not all do, and sending a picture as a “file” or “document” usually keeps them. Don’t assume.
- Sharing a screenshot of the picture instead of the original file leaves the hidden details behind, at some cost in quality.
Questions or a detail that looks wrong? support@radioactivecoding.com.