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"Fairly straightforward" is incorrect. Not an authority to describe in more detail, but the most tricky blocker I'm aware of are these proprietary "MakerNote" t
by Paracompact 8mo ago
"Fairly straightforward" is incorrect. Not an authority to describe in more detail, but the most tricky blocker I'm aware of are these proprietary "MakerNote" tags from camera manufacturers, which are (often undocumented) binary blobs. exiftool might not even know what's in there, let alone how to safely remove it without corrupting the file.
- zahlman 8mo ago> exiftool might not even know what's in there, let alone how to safely remove it without corrupting the file. But isn't it a contiguous sequence of data whose length is determined by the container format?
- fc417fc802 8mo agoOn the extreme end, simply decode the image and reencode it using an encoder that you have vetted to not include any metadata. But I agree, presumably the image data part of the file is well and exhaustively defined. I would be very interested in counterexamples that have practical consequences. Note that there will still be concerns about stenography and fingerprinting which would warrant such a disclaimer from the creator of a tool aimed at a nontechnical audience.
- zahlman 8mo agoYes, I figured that steganography, watermarks etc. are the kind of "metadata" that the tool author had in mind.