Can I disable geotagging and delete prior geotag information in photos?

Question

My phone is a rooted Samsung Captivate (Galaxy S) running a 2.2.1-based ROM. Another question touched on this, but I want to do 2 things

1. Be able to take pictures that are not geotagged. According to the referenced post above, "it turns out Froyo made GeoTracking default and unchangeable in Galaxy S". Yay. So, I can either use another camera app that doesn't use geotagging, or some other solution. I may have more options since the phone is rooted. I would prefer not to disable GPS altogether.

2. Clear previous geotag information from my photos, either on the phone or through my desktop computer (Windows XP or Linux).

Answer 1

As a solution to #2, GeoTag Security is a program you could use. It (should) run in XP, so you would have to copy your pictures to your computer first, or hook your SD up via usb, but it should do the trick!

Here's the site where i found it, the above is a direct link to their site.

Answer 2

I found a camera mod here that allows disable of geotagging and does it by default. It looks like I either need ADB or root to install it.

Edit: The camera mod doesn't work, as far as disabling geotagging.

Updated Answer: The Amazon App Store has Camera Advance Lite (and a non-lite for that matter) that has the option to turn off geotagging, which is disabled by default.

This app Geo Eraser looks like it will remove prior geotagging info.

It appears that using a Gingerbread based OS will fix the problem as well, based on my conversations with Gingerbread users.

Answer 3

I haven't looked at removing geotags yet other than desktop apps already mentioned above, for which I use the GeoTag Security. However, for preventing geotagging in the first place, this is easy seeing as you are rooted.

I recently wanted to do this, wrote to Samsung support and they told me the ability to do so in the camera app was removed with the last update. Whatever.

To stop it yourself, install LBE Privacy Guard. You will then need to go into App Management > System Components and remove Camera from the list of trusted system components. It will warn you... it's okay. Once you've removed it as trusted, go back to the main screen then to Location Access Manager and deny the camera app the right to get your location. This will stop it from geotagging while still leaving your GPS on and available for other apps such as Maps.

I have verified this with my own pictures I have taken.

This solution also allows you to hide your location from other apps you may not want to have it (such as twitter or facebook). The same app can also be used to restrict apps' access to your data connection, your contacts and a myriad of other options. Basically it allows you full control over which system permissions any app may use.

Answer 4

imagemagick has a "strip" command line argument which will remove all EXIF data (try it with the convert command.). It might be a little excessive, but imagemagick is very very very scriptable.

However it will recompress the image. See the answer to this question on stackoverflow.

Short version: jpegtran or exiftool.

Answer 5

Maybe I am missing something here, but photos I take when my Froyo device's GPS is shut off are not geotagged. Furthermore, my default Camera app has a "Store location" option. When exercising either of these options, my phone does not display the "tracking your location" icon in the notification area while taking photos.

It seems like the above options are a trivial solution to part 1 of your question. Is your phone missing these options? Do they not do what I think they do? I am running a Motorola Droid on stock Android 2.2.2 (FRG83G.)

Answer 6

In regard to your discussion, I would recommend an android phone application that is quite useful for the purpose. I use an app named “GPS Privacy” that automatically deletes the GPS location tags if the photo is taken in a privacy area – like around your home, school, work, etc. This way you don’t have to remember whether you have the GPS tags on or off. Simply define your privacy areas, and your pictures won’t have GPS coordinates when made in these zones https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shumoapp.gpsprivacy&hl=en

Hope this would be helpful for you as well!