How to delete personal data from files in Windows

Metadata consists of all kinds of data that you cannot easily see with the naked eye. For photos, for example, it could be the type of camera the photo was taken, at what location (or even the exact GPS location), and more. Once you’ve shared that photo online, you may not want to share it all. So get rid of that metadata.

How exactly do you do this? Fortunately, this is not a difficult process, but you need to spend a few minutes on it.

• Right click on the file whose metadata you want to remove
• In the context menu, select the option Properties
• Now go to tab Detail (if you fix the second from the right)
• At the bottom of this window is a blue line of text: Delete properties and personal data; click on it

When you click this link, you can proceed in two ways. You can choose between two options:

• Create a copy with all possible features removed
• Remove the following properties from this file

If you choose option 1, you will create a file without any metadata. If you choose the second option, you can decide for yourself which data is available or not. In the second option, when you click on the ball, you select the data you want to save in the window below. Whatever selection you make and whatever steps you take afterwards, press after editing OK.

You can basically do this with any file on your computer. It doesn’t matter if it’s a photo, picture, document or song. If you have this file, you can decide for yourself what personal data remains when you share an artwork with the world – whether it’s for personal or business purposes.

By the way, there are also several similar tools for this, such as Photo Anonymizer.