Many phones have the nice feature of attaching metadata, such as geolocation coordinates, to your photos and video.

However, currently the photos and video you share through OneDrive.com can have this sensitive metadata, for which you may not intend for others to see. There currently is no simple way for one to remove this sensitive data that doesn't require reuploading the file without it (something that isn't an easy process for many).

To make matters worse, shared media's metadata on OneDrive.com are misrepresented. For instance, when you share a photo or video and generate a public URL, the metadata appears to be stripped when viewed through OneDrive.com (the embedded map is hidden, for example). But when an anonymous user clicks "View Original", the original metadata is intact.

To reproduce:

1. Upload a photo with geolocation metadata.



2. Observe geo data and map in the info pane

a. Also observe that there are no options to remove sensitive geo data





Generate public shared link to photo

Open shared link in new browser window (to simulate an anonymous user)

Observe that geo data and map is missing from info pane

a. This is misleading, as many would consider that its metadata was cleansed.

Click Download original photo

View original photo properties

Observe that geo data still exists, thus allowing assailant to murder you.



I suggest an opt-out "Strip Sensitive Metadata" check box field to be added to the share dialog. This should not only make us aware that sensitive metadata exists, but would allow us to remove it at our discretion. Also, an option to remove sensitive metadata from media with a simple button click in the Info properties pane would help. And naturally, we should have these features mirrored in the mobile app versions of OneDrive.