Metadata.
The distinction that decides whether this tool helps you or gives you false confidence.
Metadata, in this context, means the labelled blocks of information stored alongside a JPEG's compressed image data: EXIF, XMP, IPTC, colour profiles, comments, vendor segments. It is container metadata — data about the picture, stored beside the picture.
What it is
A JPEG has two parts: a sequence of marked segments, and the compressed image. Metadata is the first part. It can be removed without altering the second, which is precisely why removing it is a small, well-defined problem.
Why it matters
The word "metadata" invites a much larger promise than any scrubber can keep. Removing container metadata does not make a photograph anonymous. It cannot touch:
- An invisible watermark encoded into the pixels.
- A reflection in a window, a mirror, or someone's glasses.
- A street sign, a house number, a licence plate, a distinctive skyline.
- A screen in the background with an email client open on it.
- Sensor noise patterns that can link photographs to a specific camera.
A scrubbed photo is a photo with no EXIF. Treating it as an anonymous photo is the most likely way to be hurt by a tool like this.
The mtime is metadata too
The filesystem's modification time is not in the file, but it says the same sort of thing. ScrubPony resets it deliberately rather than preserving it, because a scrubbed file still carrying its original capture time gives away part of what was being removed. People are surprised by this, so it is stated up front rather than left to be discovered.
Related terms
Common questions.
So is scrubbing worth doing?
Yes — it removes the most precise and most easily read identifiers in the file, and it takes one command. It is a floor, not a ceiling.
What else should I do?
Look at the picture. Crop what identifies the place, check reflections and screens, and consider whether the photograph itself tells the story you meant it to.
Get ScrubPony
Strips identifying metadata out of JPEGs without touching a pixel. C99, no dependencies beyond libc, macOS and Linux, MIT-licensed.