What to check in a photo before you post it

By Check Before Send · Updated 13 October 2026

Check two things: the data stored in the file, and what the picture itself shows. Apple says a shared photo carries its date and time, location, device and captions. Google adds that people can guess a place from landmarks even when the location is hidden. A tool can read the first; only you can judge the second.

This guide gives a short checklist, what the two companies document, and what a file check can and cannot tell you.

The two places a photo gives you away

Inside the file. Apple's note on sharing from an iPhone says that sharing a photo or video includes sharing its associated metadata, such as date and time, location, device and captions. A phone may let you leave some of that out for one share. A file you send some other way still holds what the camera wrote.

In the picture. Google's help page says that even when a location is hidden from people, they can guess it from landmarks in the photo. The same is true of anything legible: a street sign, a house number, a screen, a reflection, a face, a school badge.

A short checklist

Where was it taken, and does the recipient need to know? Check for stored GPS coordinates, and check the background.
When was it taken? A date stored in the file can show how long ago you were somewhere, or that you are away now.
Which device? Make and model are in the file and say little alone, but they add up with the rest.
Is there a name or caption in the file? Editing software can add a creator, a caption or a comment.
Who or what is in the picture? Faces, plates, documents on a table and screens are yours to judge.
Which copy are you sending? Check the file you will actually attach, not the original on your phone.

What a file check can and cannot do

We ran Check Before Send on a small test photo with invented values: a GPS position, a capture time, a camera make and model, and an editing software name. It listed each with the value shown. After we removed them and ran a second scan on the copy, nothing was left, and the decoded pixels were the same.

It reads the data stored in the file. It does not read the picture. In our test it could not have told us whether a house number was visible, because that is not stored in the file's data. This was one tiny test photo, not a phone photo.

What to do

Remove the location and date from a file you send, unless the recipient needs them.
Look at the picture as a stranger would, at full size.
For a photo you post in a public place, take the check seriously: you cannot take it back from copies.

Check the file before you send it

Drop the photo into Check Before Send. It lists what it found, you choose what to remove, and it writes a new copy and runs a second scan on that copy. "Verified not found" means that second scan found nothing, not that the file is guaranteed clean.

The photo is read inside your browser and is not uploaded; the Trust Center explains how to confirm that. For the location side, see do iPhone photos have location data, or browse the other guides.

Sources

More guides

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