Element-android: Scrub sensitive EXIF data from images upon upload

[anoadragon453]

Apps like Signal currently do this: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/commit/7e1e666172e0c8d0582d28a817affae91a02a598

With people blindly accepting prompts to attach location data to their images, this could go a long way in protecting people's privacy.

[anoadragon453]

We should possibly add an option for this though. Some people complain about it https://community.signalusers.org/t/add-option-to-keep-or-strip-meta-data/3005/9

[violoncelloCH]

how about doing it for images sent via the inapp camera/direct image selection, but not doing it when images are uploaded via the generic file picker (as soon as this is implemented)?

[anoadragon453]

how about doing it for images sent via the inapp camera/direct image selection, but not doing it when images are uploaded via the generic file picker (as soon as this is implemented)?

That's an elegant way to do it, though we may want to strip metadata from things like audio in the future as well. I suppose we could also have an audio picker that would strip?

[hialvaro]

how about doing it for images sent via the inapp camera/direct image selection, but not doing it when images are uploaded via the generic file picker (as soon as this is implemented)?
I think this solution could be misleading for users. This is not consistent and why doing it with some images but not all? Or letting the user choose if they want to do so?

Why not having an option before finally sending the image, like a "Strip EXIF" tick so you can choose if you want this to happen or not. And maybe a general config on "Security & Privacy" submenu to do it for all images.

[violoncelloCH]

That's an elegant way to do it, though we may want to strip metadata from things like audio in the future as well. I suppose we could also have an audio picker that would strip?

I would say again, there should be an audio picker and an integrated audio recorder (and player) for voice messages (but different topic) which strip metadata as much as possible and audio sent as files is sent as files with everything...
tbh this is a very common pattern, and of course, there could be a hint or something indicating the sending of all metadata in the "generic" file picker...
but having the UI cluttered with options like a checkbox for "strip EXIF" is not intuitive at all and scaring for every non technical user who doesn't know and doesn't want to care about what EXIF or other Metadata even exactly is... on the other hand for a technical person it's rather easy to learn that if I want to send a file (whatever it is) with all metadata, I'm going to send it with the generic file picker... also it's way simpler than having to check every time if this checkbox is set or not...

[bmarty]

FTR Exif data are scrub if user does not send image in the original size for the moment.