How to Remove Hidden Data & Metadata from Files


Virtually every popular file format contains hidden data & metadata embedded within them, including Microsoft Word, Excel®, and PowerPoint® documents, LibreOffice® Writer, Calc, Impress, and Draw documents, and PDF documents. Metadata can also be found in various image and media file types such as JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG, AVI, WAV, MP3, and MP4.

While hidden data & metadata are useful for finding files and reviewing documents, they pose privacy and confidentiality risks when the files are shared. The hidden data often contains private and sensitive information, that if unintentionally exposed can cause the file creator and his organization embarrassment with possible financial and legal implications.

Some types of dangerous hidden data that files might contain include properties such as authors names, organization name, title, and creation and modification times, comments, and revision history.

Since different file formats are built internally in a different manner, there is no universal tool for removing all possible hidden data & metadata from any file. A software must be designed specifically for removing particular hidden data types from particular file types. A software can be designed to have a multi-format capability, allowing it to clean multiple particular file types. One such software for Windows® is BatchPurifier™.

The "Remove Properties and Personal Information" feature is not suitable

Windows® 11 has a very limited built-in metadata remover - the "Remove Properties and Personal Information" feature. However, one should avoid using it since it is unreliable due to its very limited support of file formats and hidden data types, and due to its highly misleading user interface. This feature can only remove a small number of metadata properties from only nine notable file types, and it cannot remove at all many dangerous hidden data types, including document revision history and document comments.

The Windows File Properties Viewer is very limited as well. Files may, and often does, contain a whole lot more properties and other types of potentially privacy-compromising hidden data than the ones shown by this viewer. Users should not rely on this viewer to asses the risk involved in sharing files, and should clean every file before sharing it with others using a reliable hidden data & metadata remover that supports these file types.

Reliably removing hidden data & metadata from multiple files of multiple types

BatchPurifier™ can permanently remove hidden data & metadata from multiple files in one go. It supports multiple types of document, image, and media file formats, including Microsoft Office®, LibreOffice®, PDF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG, AVI, WAV, MP3, and MP4. It's an offline privacy-oriented desktop application for Windows, that supports the removal of more than 60 types of hidden data & metadata, including properties, comments, tracked changes, and slide notes.

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