About
About MetadataEraser
A free privacy tool built to do one thing well: remove hidden metadata from your files before you share them.
Why we built this
Every file you create carries invisible data. Photos contain your GPS coordinates. PDFs reveal who authored them. Word documents store your company name, edit time, and revision count. Most people have no idea this data exists — or that it travels with their files when they share them.
We built MetadataEraser because existing tools either require uploads to a remote server (defeating the purpose of privacy), charge money for basic functionality, or are buried in complex desktop software. We wanted something that works instantly, runs entirely in your browser, and costs nothing.
How it works
MetadataEraser is a static web application built with Astro. When you drop a file into the tool, it is read into browser memory using the FileReader API. A dedicated Web Worker then processes the binary data — stripping EXIF tags from images, clearing PDF info dictionaries, and sanitizing XML properties inside .docx archives.
No data ever leaves your device. There is no backend server, no database, no analytics that process your files. The entire application can run offline as an installed PWA. You can verify this yourself by opening your browser's Developer Tools and watching the Network tab — zero requests are made during processing.
Our principles
Privacy by architecture
We don't just promise not to collect your data. We built the tool so that it is technically impossible for us to access your files.
Free forever
Metadata removal is a basic privacy right, not a premium feature. The core tool will always be free to use without accounts or limits.
Transparency
Every file processed gets a verification report. We re-scan the output and show you exactly what was removed and confirm the clean result.
No dark patterns
No forced sign-ups, no email gates, no artificial limits. Drop your file, get your clean file. That's it.
Technology
MetadataEraser is built with Astro for static generation, Preact for interactive UI islands, Tailwind CSS for styling, piexifjs for JPEG EXIF manipulation, pdf-lib for PDF processing, and JSZip for Word document handling. All heavy processing runs in Web Workers to keep the interface responsive.