Tools for extracting metadata

Metadata analysis is one of the essential tools in the fact-checker’s arsenal. It can be used to determine the time and location of filming, to establish the authorship of information, possible forgery, and much more. For this, both specialized programs and online services are used, as well as standard utilities built into operating systems and programs. The choice of tool depends on the file type and the depth of the required analysis.

There are many tools designed to extract and edit information. For example, utilities such as ExifTool and Apache Tika are designed to both read and write and edit metadata in files of various formats, including images, audio, and video.

For one-time use, there are online platforms that allow you to view metadata directly on the Web. However, it is worth noting that such services can send downloaded data to a server for analysis, which must be considered when working with confidential data.

For images:

• ExifTool (command line). A powerful cross-platform tool for reading, writing and editing metadata in a huge number of formats. Requires some technical skills, but provides the most complete information.
• Jeffrey’s Image Metadata Viewer (online). A simple and convenient online service for quickly checking EXIF ​​data of photographs. Just upload a file or specify a link to the image.
• FOCA (Fingerprinting Organizations with Collected Archives)

A specialized tool for collecting and analyzing metadata from documents, often used in OSINT investigations.

For video and audio:

• MediaInfo. A popular free program with a graphical interface that provides detailed technical and administrative information about video and audio files. Allows you to view data in a convenient form or export it to text.
• FaceSwap or DeepFaceLab in history will immediately give us the necessary ground for refutation.

For documents (PDF, DOCX, etc.)

• Built-in property viewers. As a rule, basic information (author, creation date, editor) can be viewed directly in the program (for example, in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat Reader via “Document Properties”).
• ExifTool and Apache Tika are suitable for deep analysis of document metadata, extracting even hidden or deleted information.
• A significant part of the metadata can be extracted using standard operating system tools. For example, the Windows operating system provides the ability to view metadata as follows: right-click on the file — properties — details.

Additional tools

• Specialized online platforms allow you to view metadata directly on the Web and will be useful in case of one-time use. However, it is worth noting that such services can send downloaded data to the server for analysis, which must be taken into account when working with confidential data.
• To protect your privacy, you must remove metadata from files sent to the public domain. In the simplest version, this is possible by clearing the file properties using operating system utilities and built-in programs, but for greater security it is better to use software from the above-mentioned ExifTool to specialized Metadata Cleaner or BatchPurifier LITE.