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About this tool
Shows what a screenshot's filename, timestamps, status bar and leftover crop data reveal, and scores the exposure per sharing channel.
Screenshot Metadata Risk Explainer maps the identifying signals that travel with a screenshot — the default filename with its date and time, file system timestamps, PNG text chunks, on-screen status bar, visible file paths, and image data left behind an in-app crop — and scores how much of it survives the channel you share it on. Each signal is classified by where it lives (filename, embedded tag, trailing container bytes or the pixels themselves), because that determines whether a platform strips it or not. Written for anyone posting a bug report, a support screenshot or a social post who wants to know what they are handing over.
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Shows which signals a platform can strip and which stay visible no matter what you upload to.
The same screenshot scores differently on Slack, email and a public post because each handles files differently.
Every surviving signal comes with the specific fix — crop, rename, re-export or cover with an opaque block.
Screenshots do not record GPS coordinates, because no camera or location sensor is involved. They can still carry tags such as pixel dimensions, display DPI and a Software field naming the capture tool or OS build, plus the filename and file system timestamps.
Sometimes yes. The aCropalypse flaw — CVE-2023-21036 in Google's Markup editor, and the same behaviour in the Windows 11 Snipping Tool — overwrote the start of the file but left the original trailing bytes, so the uncropped image could be rebuilt. Exporting the cropped image as a new file avoids it.
No. Blur and pixelation are reversible for short, predictable strings: an attacker renders candidate text in the same font, applies the same filter and matches the output. Cover sensitive text with a solid opaque rectangle and flatten the export instead.
Major networks re-encode uploads and drop embedded tags and the original filename, but they never touch what is drawn in the picture — the clock, carrier name, notification previews, window titles and file paths all remain readable. Workplace chat, email and ticket systems usually keep the original file byte-for-byte, filename included.