ExifTool Metadata Scrubber

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🛡️ Remove EXIF metadata, GPS coordinates, and personal information from images and videos to protect privacy and comply with GDPR/CCPA regulations.

👁 Apify Actor
👁 License: MIT

🎯 What This Actor Does

This Actor uses ExifTool to strip potentially sensitive metadata from media files before sharing, uploading, or storing them. It removes:

• GPS Coordinates - Exact location where photo/video was taken
• Camera Serial Numbers - Device identification data
• Timestamps - Creation and modification dates
• Software Information - Editing software used
• Thumbnail Images - Embedded preview images
• Personal Data - Author names, comments, copyright (optional)

🔒 Privacy Use Cases

📥 Input Options

Option 1: Upload File Directly

Drag and drop an image or video directly in the Apify Console.

Option 2: Provide File URL

Enter a direct URL to the file you want to process.

Option 3: Batch Processing

Provide a list of URLs to process multiple files at once.

⚙️ Configuration

📤 Output

The Actor outputs cleaned files to the Key-Value Store and metadata to the Dataset:

{
"fileName":"vacation-photo.jpg",
"originalUrl":"https://example.com/photo.jpg",
"cleanedFileUrl":"https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/cleaned-abc123.jpg",
"originalSize":2456789,
"cleanedSize":2234567,
"metadataRemoved":[
"GPSLatitude",
"GPSLongitude",
"Make",
"Model",
"SerialNumber",
"CreateDate",
"Software"
],
"status":"success",
"processedAt":"2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
}

📁 Supported Formats

Images

• JPEG / JPG
• PNG
• GIF
• WebP
• HEIC / HEIF (iPhone photos)
• TIFF
• BMP

Videos

• MP4
• MOV (QuickTime)
• AVI
• MKV

🚀 Quick Start

Using Apify Console

1. Go to the Actor page on Apify
2. Upload your file or enter a URL
3. Configure preservation options
4. Click Start
5. Download cleaned file from Storage → Key-Value Store

Using Apify API

curl-X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_USERNAME~exiftool-metadata-scrubber/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN"\
-H"Content-Type: application/json"\
-d'{
 "fileUrl": "https://example.com/photo-with-gps.jpg",
 "preserveOrientation": true
 }'

Using Apify Client (JavaScript)

import{ ApifyClient }from'apify-client';
const client =newApifyClient({token:'YOUR_TOKEN'});
const run =await client.actor('YOUR_USERNAME/exiftool-metadata-scrubber').call({
fileUrl:'https://example.com/photo.jpg',
preserveOrientation:true,
preserveColorProfile:true
});
const{ items }=await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log('Cleaned file:', items[0].cleanedFileUrl);

Using Apify Client (Python)

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient('YOUR_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('YOUR_USERNAME/exiftool-metadata-scrubber').call(run_input={
'fileUrl':'https://example.com/photo.jpg',
'preserveOrientation':True
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print('Cleaned file:', items[0]['cleanedFileUrl'])

💰 Cost Estimation

Processing 1,000 average photos (~3MB each) costs approximately $0.10-0.20 on Apify.

🔧 Technical Details

• Base Image: apify/actor-node:22
• ExifTool Version: Latest from Debian repositories
• Memory: 256MB-1GB (scales with file size)
• Timeout: 120 seconds per file

📋 Metadata Fields Removed

❓ FAQ

Does this affect image quality?

No. ExifTool modifies only the metadata, not the actual image data. The visual quality remains identical.

Can I keep some metadata?

Yes! Use the preserve options to keep orientation, color profiles, or copyright information.

What about videos?

Videos are fully supported. ExifTool removes metadata from MP4, MOV, AVI, and other container formats.

Is this GDPR compliant?

This tool helps with GDPR compliance by removing personal data from media files before processing or storage.

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.