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Photos of your kids on social media and in the school group: what they say without you seeing it

Photos of children are the ones shared most: in the school parents’ group, on social media, with family. And they are the ones that need most care, because besides the face they can carry your home address, the school’s name and the time they come out.

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What is inside the photo

A photo taken with a phone usually carries the coordinates of where it was taken, to within a few metres, and the exact date and time. A birthday photo at home carries your home address; one at the school gate, the school and the time.

Some apps strip that data when you send the photo the normal way, but not all of them, and not in every mode: sending it as a document, by email or through a cloud link can keep everything. The guide on WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram has what is known about each.

What shows also counts

  • The uniform or the school crest, the name on the backpack or on a label.
  • The front door or the building entrance, with the number or the street name.
  • Routines: the same photo every day at the same time and place says where they will be tomorrow.
  • The other children: a group photo includes other families’ kids, who may not want them shared.

How to share them without giving everything away

  • Remove the location first. On iPhone, when sharing, “Options” and turn off “Location”. To also remove the date, the model and the rest, clean it with KillEXIF: it happens in your browser, without uploading the photo, and the image loses no quality.
  • Check what a photo carries before forwarding it. If someone sent it to you, drop it onto KillEXIF: if it has coordinates, they will show under “Where you were”, with a map.
  • Share less, and with fewer people. A private family album exposes less than a group of a hundred parents or an open network.
  • Ask before posting other children. It is what you would want others to do with yours.

If you do it often

On the website you can drop many photos at once and clean them with “Clean everything”. And with the KillEXIF apps for Mac and Windows, a watched folder cleans everything you move over from your phone while the app is open, so what you share from your computer already goes out clean.