iPhone Photo Data Could Reveal Your Exact Location + How to Remove It

Tagging your photos with their location can be helpful. It lets you quickly find photos taken on your last vacation or another particular spot. Once uploaded to social media, these geotagged images can inadvertently reveal the location of your home or your favorite restaurant. You may appreciate having access to this location information, but you likely don’t want to share it with the world. You can prevent any accidental sharing with these few simple steps.

Disable Location Sharing on Individual Photos

This method not only allows you to keep the location information that is stored with your photos, but it also lets you disable it on a photo-by-photo basis. Stripping the GPS data in this way has its benefits, but it can be tedious as you need to modify every image you share.

1. Start by opening the photo or photos you want to share.
2. Select the Share button.
3. Select Options at the top of the sharing screen.
4. Turn off the location toggle to remove the GPS data from the selected photos.
5. Select Done to save your changes.

Once the location toggle is turned off, you can safely share your photo(s) with others without revealing where you were when you took them.

Turn Off Sharing Permanently

To ensure you don’t accidentally share your location information, you can turn off location services permanently. It disables location within the camera app making it impossible to track where your photos were taken.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to Privacy > Location Services.
3. Select Camera to access the camera settings.
4. Select Never under “Allow Location Access.”

Once location is disabled, none of your photos going forward will contain the GPS coordinates. Consider carefully before you disable this feature. Yes, it hides where you took the photo, but it also prevents you from searching for images by their location.