AnonWatch

Retrieving Meta Data from Documents and Pictures Online

Almost every file carries some MetaData along with it.
For example, Microsoft has a technology called OLE (Object Linking and Embedding). This technology, among other things, holds many details (MetaData) regarding the identity of the author.
Details such as:
* Your name
* Your initials
* Your company or organization name
* The name of your computer
* The name of the network server or hard disk where you saved the document
* Other file properties and summary information
* Non-visible portions of embedded OLE objects
* The names of previous document authors
* Document revisions
* Document versions
* Template information
* Hidden text or cells
* Personalized views
* Comments

If you wish to remove these information details from your Microsoft documents, i suggest reading this article

These details could be retrieved from online documents to reveal the identity of a document author.
Like OLE, other files has other standards that also holds information about the computer and author of the file.

In order to retrieve that kind of information from files online, I recommend using Serversniff File-Info.
It has the ability to retrieve information from over 100 file types.

- Images: .gif, .jpg, .raw-formats, .png, .tiff and many many others
- Video: .avi, .mpg, .mov and many others
- Audio: .mp3, .wav, .ogg and many others
- Documents: .doc, .xls, .ppt, .pdf and many others
- Multimedia: .swf and many others
- Archives: .zip, .rar, .gz, .tar and many others

MetaData could be also retrieved from pictures we find online.
For example, the JPEG file format holds these information details in the MetaData (Which is called EXIF):
* model of the digital camera
* time and date the picture was taken
* distance the camera was focused at
* location information (GPS - Only if the camera has a GPS antenna) where the picture was taken
* small preview image (thumbnail) of the picture
* firmware version, serial numbers, name and version of the image manipulation program.

If you want to view these details of a specific photo, you can either use Serversniff file info, or an application called ExifViewer

to remove MetaData from the photos you have taken, you can use jhead to manipulate that MetaData.