← All Guides / guides

Word Document Metadata: The Privacy Risk You're Ignoring

Microsoft Word .docx files store author names, company info, edit time, and revision history. Here's what you need to know before sharing documents.

Published January 20, 2026

Word Document Metadata: The Privacy Risk You’re Ignoring

Microsoft Word documents (.docx files) are ZIP archives containing XML files. Some of those XML files store metadata about you, your organization, and your editing history.

What’s Inside a .docx File?

When you unzip a .docx, you’ll find a docProps/ folder containing:

core.xml

  • dc:creator — The author’s name
  • cp:lastModifiedBy — Who last edited the file
  • dcterms:created — Creation timestamp
  • dcterms:modified — Last modification timestamp
  • cp:revision — Total number of saves/revisions
  • cp:keywords — Document keywords
  • dc:subject — Document subject

app.xml

  • Application — “Microsoft Office Word” with version number
  • Company — Your organization name
  • TotalTime — Total minutes spent editing
  • Template — Template file used

custom.xml

  • Any custom properties added by plugins or document management systems

Real-World Exposure

A common scenario: you send a proposal to a client. The .docx metadata reveals:

  • Your company name (even if you’re freelancing under a different name)
  • That you spent 47 minutes writing it
  • That it’s revision 12 (suggesting uncertainty or multiple drafts)
  • The exact timestamps of when you worked on it

Clean Your Word Documents

Use our free Word Metadata Remover to strip all properties from your .docx files before sharing. It works 100% in your browser.