How To Remove Exif Data From Images When Using Ubuntu/Linux Mint

An earlier article described how to remove EXIF data from images when using Windows.

For doing that in Ubuntu/Linux Mint, there is a simple and powerful tool which can be used. It is the exiftool.

First, install it from the terminal using the following command:

sudo apt-get install libimage-exiftool-perl

installing exiftool in Ubuntu/Linux Mint

After it is installed, images can be directly processed from the terminal with this tool.

To display the Exif data for a specific photo, run exiftool with input as the image path :

exiftool imagepath

viewing exif data of images using exiftool in Ubuntu/Linux Mint

To delete all the associated Exif data for an image, the -all= parameter is used :

exiftool -all= imagepath

deleting exif data from images using exiftool in Ubuntu/Linux Mint

After the data is removed, viewing the image details would look like this :

image details after removing exif data using exifttool in Ubuntu/Linux Mint

exiftool has many functions and the parameters for that can be accessed using the man page :

man exiftool

man page for exiftool

Do try it out.

  1. Full Article says:

    Most digital cameras and cell phone add EXIF metadata to the images. EXIF metadata includes camera specifications, settings, location (GPS coordinates) and more. If you’re worried about the privacy, you may want to anonymize your images and photos by removing all the EXIF metadata. In your blog post you have explained everything in a good manner. Thank you so much for your tips and ideas.