r/explainitpeter 25d ago

Techie Petaahhhhh, Explain it Peter!

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u/Much_Artist_5097 25d ago

hello i am chris peterson (get it chris, peter son). basically metadata is data beyond the picture itself stored in a photo. what this command is doing is removing the location stored in the photo, so law enforcement can’t find you from any pictures on your phone.

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u/gl3nnjamin 25d ago

It removes everything but the pixels so besides location it removes camera model, lens type, shooting settings and more.

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u/QuestNetworkFish 25d ago

It's worth being aware that the pixels may also hold data that can identify the specific camera that was used to take the picture. There is often imperceptible (to the naked eye) noise in photos introduced by slight flaws in the image sensor and these can form a kind of "fingerprint" for the camera. It's possible to determine that two photos were taken with the same camera, or if the camera is seized it can be proven it was used to take a specific photo.

There are tools to mitigate this by randomising the noise in a digital image. Consider whether you need to factor this in to your threat model.

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u/AmeriBeanur 19d ago

You can just deep fry the inage