Image metadata before social upload

Creators often finish editing, then get surprised by privacy leaks or platform labels. Many of those signals live in file metadata, not in what you see on screen.

Common layers

• EXIF — camera, timestamps, sometimes GPS
• XMP — editor / AI-tool namespaces
• C2PA / Content Credentials — provenance from generative edits

Cropping or chat-app re-encoding does not reliably remove these blocks.

Pre-upload checklist

1. Finish the creative edit.
2. Export the exact file you will upload.
3. Inspect metadata on that file.
4. Strip what you do not want public (GPS-only or a fuller clean).
5. Carousels: check each slide. Reels: check the cover still.

Optional browser cleanup

For a local-in-browser cleanup focused on AI-related and provenance tags, use ai metadata remover before posting to Instagram or similar apps.

Cleaning metadata reduces file-level risk; it is not a guarantee against every platform classifier.