{
  "testedAt": "2026-10-17",
  "publisher": "TuliAI (BeforeShare)",
  "page": "https://beforeshare.com/en/metadata-remover-alternatives",
  "method": "Each tool cleaned the same three synthetic files. Every byte of each output was searched for the planted values, including inflated PDF streams, PDF hex strings and every part inside the DOCX package. Photo pixels were decoded and compared with the original. For websites, every request sent while choosing and cleaning a file was recorded in the browser.",
  "inputs": {
    "test-photo.jpg": { "bytes": 10523, "sha256": "8b7eb7c6057fc1bb8426dbf5e77fc7e34c86cbcbf6e80ce76272c3a8909d5904", "planted": ["CanaryMake", "CanaryModel", "CanarySerial123", "CanaryArtist", "CanaryCopyright", "CanarySoftware", "CanaryXmpCreator", "CanaryPrompt", "CanaryCreatorTool", "CanaryIptcByline", "CanaryGenerator (C2PA claim generator)", "GPS 47.3769 N, 8.5417 E"] },
    "test-edited.pdf": { "bytes": 5192, "sha256": "5e0ca259d4c5bf3501c3e1e03816cf9eb4b7ca1be4501f92b7cb92a7d6e9f364", "planted": ["CanaryAuthorOriginal", "CanaryTitle", "CanarySubject", "CanaryKeyword", "CanaryCreatorApp", "CanaryProducer"], "editedTo": ["CanaryAuthorEdited", "CanaryTitleEdited"], "note": "Edited once with ExifTool 13.55 after saving (incremental update), so the original Info dictionary is still in the file." },
    "test-review.docx": { "bytes": 2893, "sha256": "158ddbb27deb3dcdbd8d34bd483946615017b79f38402c1efd4d610d40ee34a4", "planted": ["CanaryCreator", "CanaryLastEditor", "CanaryDocTitle", "CanaryCompany", "CanaryManager", "CanaryCommenter", "CanaryCommentText", "CanaryReviewer", "CanaryDeletedText"], "visibleText": ["Visible paragraph that must stay.", "Commented words.", "Inserted sentence."] }
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "tool": "BeforeShare",
      "where": "In the browser (engine from beforeshare.com, same source)",
      "photo": { "outputBytes": 6718, "outputSha256": "53e0ad598006a4df7e72f972a96ba919eda1601327e75318721ed17a5f529823", "remaining": [], "pixelsEqual": true },
      "pdf": { "outputBytes": 826, "outputSha256": "ad6aa3bb07a13de6fc88d79ba7e21a2712622621a04245a5f09ccc24d4db58c4", "remaining": [], "visibleTextKept": true },
      "docx": { "outputBytes": 3509, "outputSha256": "fc4858783890a3764747587a11a6d76c83428527f64214d6f5a19172f59bb68c", "remaining": [], "visibleTextKept": true }
    },
    {
      "tool": "MetaStrip",
      "url": "https://metastrip.app/",
      "where": "In the browser; the only outside requests went to us.i.posthog.com (analytics)",
      "photo": { "outputBytes": 6718, "outputSha256": "53e0ad598006a4df7e72f972a96ba919eda1601327e75318721ed17a5f529823", "remaining": [], "pixelsEqual": true },
      "pdf": { "outputBytes": 824, "outputSha256": "fe21cf6796388d895abc3793a8035fd2392cee7ba34d7ac65c72bd1e1053caf9", "remaining": [], "earlierRevisionRemoved": true },
      "docx": { "outputBytes": 3274, "outputSha256": "626c43962d0c52139d92217cfac93848f2f96c871be8db7f170baf96e1293eb6", "remaining": [], "visibleTextKept": true }
    },
    {
      "tool": "MetaRemover",
      "url": "https://metaremover.com/",
      "where": "Each file was sent whole (multipart field 'file', original size) to https://metaremover.com/api/upload as soon as it was chosen (HTTP 200). PDF cleaning was sent to https://pdf-worker.metaremover.com/clean and Word cleaning to https://office-worker.metaremover.com/clean. The photo map requested OpenStreetMap tiles (zoom 10) around the photo's GPS position.",
      "photo": { "outputBytes": 7793, "outputSha256": "471453fa2aaf959c8c2741fa544b9b1c56212cede8f0bbc41351692b357b5a1d", "remaining": [], "pixelsEqual": false, "changedColourValues": "49003 of 57600 (85%), max difference 29 of 255" },
      "pdf": { "outputBytes": 890, "outputSha256": "c4bb6784853d04cd35febe13dbdbb5518e6a0e63d1fad82d8181b19503c923de", "remaining": [] },
      "docx": { "outputBytes": 2082, "outputSha256": "1ca3fdf7058d793f073c1204bacf61057cd43854b2221e6b2fbc20c6dde754be", "remaining": ["CanaryCommentText", "CanaryCommenter", "CanaryDeletedText", "CanaryReviewer"], "visibleTextKept": true, "pageSaid": "Cleared ✓" }
    },
    {
      "tool": "verexif",
      "url": "https://www.verexif.com/",
      "where": "The photo was posted to https://www.verexif.com/en/quitar.php (the site's Remove Exif form) and the cleaned photo came back from the server",
      "photo": { "outputBytes": 6736, "outputSha256": "6d22151241dc667031bba2b19d26022a42432b86465a8303d33bb4d2e5d1799f", "remaining": [], "pixelsEqual": true },
      "pdf": "not supported",
      "docx": "not supported"
    },
    {
      "tool": "ExifTool 13.55",
      "url": "https://exiftool.org/",
      "where": "On the computer: exiftool -all= <file>",
      "photo": { "outputBytes": 6718, "outputSha256": "53e0ad598006a4df7e72f972a96ba919eda1601327e75318721ed17a5f529823", "remaining": [], "pixelsEqual": true },
      "pdf": { "outputBytes": 1616, "outputSha256": "45a5947dc7c828a4628b1e9fa1e38603d5de14567527b5e85b7bac2db1a58aff", "remaining": ["CanaryAuthorOriginal", "CanaryTitle", "CanarySubject", "CanaryKeyword", "CanaryCreatorApp", "CanaryProducer"], "exiftoolWarning": "ExifTool PDF edits are reversible. Deleted tags may be recovered!" },
      "docx": "Error: Writing of DOCX files is not yet supported"
    }
  ],
  "notTested": ["Metacleaner", "ExifCleaner"]
}