Photos, videos, and files

Photos, videos, and files you attach to a tip are rebuilt to remove hidden data, then locked before they are stored. This page explains what the rebuild removes, what it cannot remove, and how attachments are stored.

Hidden data is removed

Most phones and cameras write hidden data into every photo and video. This can include the GPS location where it was taken, the device’s make and model, and the exact time. None of it shows in the picture or plays in the sound, but any of it could point back to you.

Before a photo, video, or file you attach is saved, we re-create it from scratch so hidden data — like the GPS location your camera records, the device model, and timestamps — does not come along. This happens both on your device and again on our server.

Re-creating the file means nothing hidden has to be found and deleted one field at a time. The picture is kept; the hidden data is not. Some phone photo formats are converted to a more common format during the rebuild. The picture itself is unchanged.

Video from a phone is accepted. Before the file is stored, the platform removes the embedded location and device details and keeps the picture and sound.

PDF documents are cleaned too. The document’s own information, such as the author name and the software that made it, is cleared before the file is saved.

Locked before storage

Files you attach are locked before they are stored, just like the rest of your tip. Anyone who reached the stored files without going through your program would find locked data, not your photos.

This lock is held for your program, not by you. Your program can open the files you attach, because they are the evidence you chose to send.

The honest limits

The rebuild removes hidden data, not what the picture shows or the audio says. If a photo or video shows something that could identify you, such as your reflection, your street, your voice, or your name on a paper, no cleaning can remove that. Look and listen to what you attach before you send it.

A PDF is not fully scrubbed. Clearing a document’s own information does not rebuild the pictures inside it, so a photo placed inside a PDF keeps its hidden data. If you want to send a photo, attach the photo file itself rather than putting it inside a document.

Related

• Encryption: how your tip itself is protected.
• Anonymity: what the platform knows about you, and what it does not.
• Retention: how long your tip is kept.

The full register of guarantees, in the exact words the platform commits to, is on How TypVault protects you.