Often we think that the documents we create are only made up of the content they show. For example, a file from Microsoft Word it's just text. The same happens with images and other extensions.
But actually They carry much more with them than meets the eye. We are talking about the metadata. They are information about the context in which it was created or edited a file.
Although they are intended to make document recovery, identification and authentication easier they have a drawback. They are created automatically and many times may include data that we consider private. If you want to know more about metadata and keep your documents more secure, this text is for you.
How can they use metadata to attack my security?
That the metadata of an image file contains the camera that was used to capture it may seem like harmless information. However, the huge amount of documents and the information hidden and attached to them can offer too much personal data to those who are in the hunt for them. Details of calls and usage patterns of them can provide malicious people at what time of day we are awake, as well as hints of our religion according to the greetings of the end of the year or festivities.
Similarly our work habits, the places that we usually visit. Too emails even data that can be used to be victims of bank fraud. But surely you ask yourself, how is it possible for someone to reach just a specific data in a specific file? The truth is there are Big Data processing programs. So it is as simple as collect metadata and the software will debug the valuable information.
However, it is possible to prevent our privacy and security from being compromised through these attachments. The best way to do it is taking them off of the documents we handle. Next, we offer you the best way to achieve it regardless of your operating system.
Learn step by step how to remove metadata from your operating system like an expert
Regardless of the extension of your files, be they photographs, texts or any other, following these steps, you can eliminate unwanted metadata.
Let's see the steps in the different Systems:
On windows
Carry out this process on Windows it's quite simple. For example, before attaching a file to an email, locate it in the browser.
Then follow these steps:
- Press the secondary button mouse over it.
- Within the context menu, choose "Properties".
- In this new window, press the tab "Details".
- At the lower end you can see in blue "Remove properties and personal information". Click there.
- A new window will appear. In it mark the option "Remove the following properties from this file."
- Then press the button "Select all". (The latter may vary according to the recipient's requirements, but if it is not specified, we recommend that you remove them in their entirety).
- To finish press "To accept". Then the document will be free of personal data and you can send it by mail without fear of violating your security and privacy.
On macOS
On operating systems Mac, removing the metadata is a bit more cumbersome, since does not offer a native tool as simple as Windows. Therefore, we will use two methods different. One for the images and videos and another for Office documents. As you will notice, both are third party applications.
Mac devices are one of the favorites by editors and photographers. To protect the data of your images you can use programs like ImageOptim. That will get the job done very quickly.
Download ImageOptim MacOS
To do this, follow these steps:
- Opens the software.
- Press the gear Of configuration.
- In the tab "General" brand "Remove EXIF bookmarks."
- Drag the files to the window or press the button "+" in the interface and select them.
For text documents or spreadsheets or slide shows, it is best to perform this procedure from the same Office applications.
In all of them the steps and menus are the same:
- Open the document with the application of Microsoft corresponding.
- Press the tab "Archive".
- Within this menu, in the side panel choose "Information".
- Click on "Check for problems".
- In this new window choose "Inspect document".
- A list of the inspection results will be displayed. Inside of section "Document properties and personal information" push the button "Remove all".
- Press "To close" and then save the document regularly.
On linux
For perform metadata removal on Linux the first thing to do is use a package called "Imagemagick".
After follow these steps:
- To do this, run the following command "Apt-get install imagemagickpacman -S imagemagickyum install imagemagickdnf install imagemagickxbps-install imagemagick".
- Installation finished you can check the file's metadata by right-clicking on it and choosing "Properties".
- To remove them enter the following command of the selected file "Mogrify -strip '/ directories / Document name.extension'".
That's it. You can corroborate that have been erased by repeating the second step.