Most social media sites delete metadata from image files, study says

A study conducted by the International Press Telecommunications Council has exposed the fact that most social media websites remove metadata from user-uploaded images.

The International Press Telecommunications Council is one of the biggest news agencies and publishers in the world.

Google+ is ahead of Twitter and Facebook in IPTC’s photo metadata test results.

IPTC study finds out that Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter delete photographers’ metadata from image files

The agency has recently conducted a study to see which of the social media websites decided to play fair and keep the metadata in the images uploaded by users and photographers. The results were surprising, to say the least, as two of the biggest names, Facebook and Flickr, delete almost all metadata from image files.

Another industry-favorite, Twitter, has also been discovered to remove the precious information, which would help photographers to see whether someone has been using their photos or not.

Social media websites are “as good as the information” its users share, said Managing Director Michael Steidl. If the users had decided to share the details, then Facebook, Twitter, and the rest should have kept the data intact, added Steidl.

Fifteen websites have been tested and most of them have been revealed to delete the information

The IPTC study has focused on a total of 15 websites, which were tested to see whether they affect metadata integrity, in concordance with and EXIF standards and its own.

As stated above, it has been demonstrated that Facebook and Flickr are the worst when it comes to preserving photo metadata. Other services which did not pass the test were Twitter, Pictify, and Twitpic.

However, there are services which have performed superbly in the tests, including Google+ and Joomeo. Another company, which deserves a praise, is Dropbox, which also keeps most metadata in the image files.

Google+ should be the most-trusted service, as it keeps all metadata

The IPTC found that Google+ and Dropbox will preserve the full metadata from image files, regardless of whether they are embedded on another website or downloaded to a computer.

The list of tested websites also includes 500px, Img.ly, Photobucket, Pinterest, Tumblr, Via.me, and Yfrog.

Most professional photographers and bloggers spend a lot of time adding captions and other information, therefore some of them have been shocked to find out that their preferred social media services are choosing to remove the data from the image files, concluded IPTC’s David Riecks, who tested the sites.

Spokespersons for the social media sites “incriminated” by the test results have not commented on the matter. However, the Terms of Service may act in their favor, while they might say that the reason for deleting metadata is to preserve bandwidth and storage space.