Image Metadata Cleaner

Clean privacy-sensitive metadata from user-owned images by writing sanitized copies. Designed for legitimate privacy hygiene, file preparation, and reproducible publishing workflows.

Use only for: images you own or are authorized to process, for privacy protection, file-size optimization, and clean publishing.

What it does

• Re-encodes image pixels into a fresh output file — all metadata discarded
• Writes copies instead of modifying originals in place
• Defaults folder output to metadata-cleaned/ subdirectory
• Refuses output paths that resolve to the same file as the input
• Reopens outputs and scans for residual metadata keys and provenance markers
• Produces a human-readable summary and optional JSON manifest

Usage

Single file

User: clean metadata from this image: photo.png
User: remove EXIF data from IMG_2024.jpg

Folder batch

User: clean metadata from all images in "C:\Users\me\Downloads"
User: remove privacy data from /path/to/folder

Steps

1. Confirm the task is for privacy hygiene on images the user owns or is authorized to process.

1. Preview with dry-run (optional):

```bash

uv run --with "pillow>=10.0" scripts/strip.py "" --dry-run

```

1. Run the cleanup:

```bash

uv run --with "pillow>=10.0" scripts/strip.py "" --manifest

```

Options:

• -o — Output file path (single file only)
• --output-dir — Output directory (batch mode)
• -f preserve|jpg|png — Output format (default: preserve — JPEG stays JPEG, others become PNG)
• -q <1-100> — JPEG quality (default: 95)
• --recursive — Process subdirectories
• --overwrite — Overwrite existing output (only after user confirmation)
• --dry-run — Preview without writing files
• --manifest [path] — Write JSON manifest

If uv is not available:

```bash

pip install "pillow>=10.0" && python scripts/strip.py "" --manifest

```

1. Report results:
• Files processed, failed, or dry-run previewed
• Output filenames and location
• File size before → after
• Dimensions preserved
• Verification scan results (any residual metadata keys or provenance markers)

Note: this removes file-level metadata only. Pixel-level watermarks and external platform records are outside the scope.

Error Handling

What gets removed

Output behavior

• Format: Default preserve — JPEG inputs stay JPEG, others written as PNG
• Naming: {name}-clean.{ext} (e.g., photo-clean.png)
• Folder mode: Outputs go to metadata-cleaned/ subdirectory
• Single file: Sibling copy next to the original
• Never overwrites input — script refuses if output resolves to input

Supported inputs

.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .webp, .bmp, .tiff, .tif

Known limitations

• Does not remove pixel-level watermarks, fingerprints, or invisible signals
• Does not affect external platform records or server-side provenance
• Removing ICC profiles may affect color management in some workflows
• JPEG output is lossy; PNG preferred for pixel fidelity
• Transparent images written as JPEG are composited onto white background