Education

What is EXIF Data? A Beginner's Guide

Uncover the hidden metadata in your images and learn how GPS coordinates and timestamps are embedded into your photos.

By Education TeamUpdated Feb 2026

Every time you snap a photo with your smartphone or digital camera, the device records more than just the visual pixels. It creates a hidden file attached to the image called EXIF data (Exchangeable Image File Format).

What Exactly Does EXIF Store?

Think of EXIF as a digital fingerprint for your photograph. It typically stores:

The Invisible Problem

While EXIF data is highly useful, it is completely invisible when looking at the picture. If you print the photo or paste it into a report, the location and time data are lost.

Furthermore, social media platforms (like Instagram, Facebook, and X) usually strip out EXIF data to protect user privacy. Once uploaded, the proof of location is gone forever.

How gpscamera.net Solves This

A tool like gpscamera.net solves the "invisible data" problem. Instead of hiding the GPS coordinates inside a hidden EXIF file, it reads the live data from your device and permanently stamps it visually over the pixels of the photograph.

This means even if the photo is printed, compressed, or shared on social media, the proof of location, time, and address remains clearly legible on the image itself.

Make Your Data Visible

Don't let your location proof get lost in hidden code. Stamp your photos instantly in your browser.

Open Camera

Frequently Asked Questions

How is a GPS Map Camera different from normal EXIF data?
Normal cameras hide GPS data invisibly inside the EXIF file. A GPS Map Camera extracts that hidden data and permanently "stamps" or "burns" it visibly onto the pixels of the image, so it can never be stripped away.