One of the problems I've had to deal with, as I've dabbled in webmastering for community projects, is file metadata. We've all heard the ghost stories about photos with locations encoded, documents with author attributions, and the ways that cops and fash can use that information. Google spits out plenty of web applications that purport to remove metadata from your files, but do I trust those random web apps with keeping my friends' information safe? Absolutely not. So, I decided to figure out how to do it myself.
The main file types I've had to worry about thus far are PDFs, JPEGs, PNGs, and SVGs. First, I'll document my knowledge of the metadata structures for each of these file types, then I'll examine some tools for manipulating that metadata.
Disclaimer: I am an Ubuntu daily driver. Windows makes me wanto to scream and I have barely ever touched MacOS. What this means for you, dear reader, is that you'll probably have to do some research and adaptations to make any of this work on your Apple or PC machine. Through this process I expect you'll learn why I have sought refuge in the arms of my Linux-based operating system.