adding a Metadata Removal Tool

[KapnJackSparrow]

This is probably a tall order but would it be possibly to add a Metadata Removal Tool into ccleaner ?

it's nice that ccleaner will remove usage tracks from things like office and photoshop

but often if a picture is taken from a cellphone or digital camera there is residual data metadate stored in the file itself. such as where it was taken, when, the f stop etc or in the case of office files, the auther, title date. etc.

i am purposing a adding a file cleaner that will go through a folder and scrub the files of this extra and in many cases unwanted information. I have done some searching on the web but I haven't really found too many tools that do a good job of doing this.

[Nergal]

More a job for a more specialized program, imho. It's not really junk and many people would misuse it. Different file types store metadata differently (a mp3 (which has at least 5 types of metadata storage) doesnt use the same method as jpg as mpg as ...). Someone could want to only remove one type of data (say gps location) so logic would have to be in ccleaner for every possible Mtdata variable.

[KapnJackSparrow]

@ Nergal: Yes you're probably right, I knew it would be quite a task since the files store this kind of thing in diffrent places, and there are 1000's of different file formats.

but imho privacy concerns are at an all time high after all the data Mr Snowden released. To me it makes sense that if you want to remove logs and metadata from your computer you’ll want to do the same with your files. Personally I just find applications placing unnecessary information places I didn’t tell them to annoying and I like knowing that when I send a file to my friend, my boss or even a date that it doesn't have any extra information that could tell them more then I felt like sharing. But I could also see this as being something celebrities and the online dating community would really appreciate as well.

So maybe it's an idea for a new piriform application

[kroozer]

If you need to remove metadata from only jpg and png, try Stripper.

 

Highlight several images and drag 'em into the window. Instant result and disclosure.

[KapnJackSparrow]

@ Kroozer I was using a program called BatchPurifier lite which does a nice job for jpeg but nothing else, unless you buy it. (which I am always weary of since I don't know how it will react to a system reinstallation.)

I like that I can integrate Stripper into explorer and that it is portable (so it will surive a reinstall without needing to be reconfigured.)

so thank you

anyone know of anything for office files ?

[mta]

not an option I'd like CC to do.

it would take it out of the gently-gently arena of only removing junk/temp files to physically altering your data - dangerous.

but they have implemented File Finder - so go figure.