Veil

Veil is a metadata cleaner. Drop a file in and it shows the hidden information inside: where a photo was taken, which phone took it, who wrote a document. Then it removes what you choose before you share the file, without touching the picture quality.

See what is inside

Everything hidden in a file, grouped and explained in plain words, with the private items flagged: location, device, people, dates, and the hidden extras most programs never show.
Location as numbers, with an "Open in maps" button that hands the coordinates to your browser only when you press it.
The embedded preview picture, shown to you, because it can still hold the original from before a crop or an edit. Veil tells you when the preview no longer matches the picture.
A raw view of every tag for people who want it.
For a folder, a privacy summary: "37 of 120 photos contain a location; 120 identify the device; 4 have an old preview that differs from the picture", and a filter for each kind of data.

Clean with one click

Three levels, each showing exactly what it will remove before it does: location only; personal details (location, device and serial numbers, names, software, previews, maker blocks, history and comments, keeping the date taken); or everything that can be removed.
Custom: tick individual kinds to remove or keep, and save your choice as a preset.
Orientation and the colour profile are kept at every level, so a photo still displays the right way up and in the right colours. They are not private; Veil says why if you untick them.
After cleaning, every file is read again and you get a checked result: "0 location fields, 0 device fields remain". If something could not be removed, Veil says so. It never reports clean without checking.

Nothing is lost

Cleaning is lossless. Only the metadata parts of a file are removed or rewritten; the picture, video and sound are copied through byte for byte and never decoded and saved again.
Photos: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, TIFF, HEIC/HEIF and AVIF. Camera RAW files can be looked at but are not rewritten.
Videos: MP4 and MOV, cleaned without re-encoding, however large.
Documents: PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint: author, last modified by, company, manager, names on comments and tracked changes, revision count, template path, custom properties, and the hidden data of photos placed inside them.
Audio: MP3, M4A and FLAC tags.
Tracked changes, comments, hidden sheets and speaker notes are content, not metadata. Veil does not remove them, and points them out when they are there.

Your originals are safe

Originals are never changed by default: cleaned copies go to a "Veil" folder beside them, or a folder you choose, with the same names.
An explicit "clean in place" option sends each original to the Recycle Bin first, so it can be got back.
No existing file is ever overwritten without asking. A file that cannot be read or cleaned is skipped and listed with the reason.
File dates on disk can be kept or set to now, since a file's modified time is also a clue.
Cleaned copies can be renamed to neutral names (photo-001), because a file name can give things away too.

Also

Set or clear the author and copyright, move or set the date taken, and set a location by typing coordinates.
"Clean with Veil" in Explorer's Send to menu, with a choice of level.
An optional Share folder: whatever you put into it is cleaned automatically at the level you choose, with the original kept for a number of days. Off by default.
A history of every batch as numbers only: no file names unless you ask for them.
Light and dark mode.

Good to know

Veil removes what is hidden inside a file. It does not blur faces, number plates or anything visible in the picture.
Your files never leave your PC. The only thing Veil contacts is this store, to check the licence and look for a new version.
It installs for your user account only and never asks for administrator rights. It runs no Windows service; it stays in the notification area only while the Share folder is switched on.
Password-protected and digitally signed PDFs, old Office files (.doc, .xls, .ppt) and camera RAW files are not rewritten; Veil says why.
Free to try for 14 days with every feature. After that Veil needs a licence to keep working; without one it opens only a screen for entering a key, and files put in the Share folder are no longer cleaned (the screen says so). Files already cleaned stay yours, and presets and history are kept for when a licence is active.

One-time purchase for one PC. Includes every version released in the following 12 months; the version you have keeps working after that.

See what is inside

Everything hidden in a file, grouped and explained in plain words, with the private items flagged: location, device, people, dates, and the hidden extras most programs never show.
Location as numbers, with an "Open in maps" button that hands the coordinates to your browser only when you press it.
The embedded preview picture, shown to you, because it can still hold the original from before a crop or an edit. Veil tells you when the preview no longer matches the picture.
A raw view of every tag for people who want it.
For a folder, a privacy summary: "37 of 120 photos contain a location; 120 identify the device; 4 have an old preview that differs from the picture", and a filter for each kind of data.

Clean with one click

Three levels, each showing exactly what it will remove before it does: location only; personal details (location, device and serial numbers, names, software, previews, maker blocks, history and comments, keeping the date taken); or everything that can be removed.
Custom: tick individual kinds to remove or keep, and save your choice as a preset.
Orientation and the colour profile are kept at every level, so a photo still displays the right way up and in the right colours. They are not private; Veil says why if you untick them.
After cleaning, every file is read again and you get a checked result: "0 location fields, 0 device fields remain". If something could not be removed, Veil says so. It never reports clean without checking.

Nothing is lost

Cleaning is lossless. Only the metadata parts of a file are removed or rewritten; the picture, video and sound are copied through byte for byte and never decoded and saved again.
Photos: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, TIFF, HEIC/HEIF and AVIF. Camera RAW files can be looked at but are not rewritten.
Videos: MP4 and MOV, cleaned without re-encoding, however large.
Documents: PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint: author, last modified by, company, manager, names on comments and tracked changes, revision count, template path, custom properties, and the hidden data of photos placed inside them.
Audio: MP3, M4A and FLAC tags.
Tracked changes, comments, hidden sheets and speaker notes are content, not metadata. Veil does not remove them, and points them out when they are there.

Your originals are safe

Originals are never changed by default: cleaned copies go to a "Veil" folder beside them, or a folder you choose, with the same names.
An explicit "clean in place" option sends each original to the Recycle Bin first, so it can be got back.
No existing file is ever overwritten without asking. A file that cannot be read or cleaned is skipped and listed with the reason.
File dates on disk can be kept or set to now, since a file's modified time is also a clue.
Cleaned copies can be renamed to neutral names (photo-001), because a file name can give things away too.

Also

Set or clear the author and copyright, move or set the date taken, and set a location by typing coordinates.
"Clean with Veil" in Explorer's Send to menu, with a choice of level.
An optional Share folder: whatever you put into it is cleaned automatically at the level you choose, with the original kept for a number of days. Off by default.
A history of every batch as numbers only: no file names unless you ask for them.
Light and dark mode.

Good to know

Veil removes what is hidden inside a file. It does not blur faces, number plates or anything visible in the picture.
Your files never leave your PC. The only thing Veil contacts is this store, to check the licence and look for a new version.
It installs for your user account only and never asks for administrator rights. It runs no Windows service; it stays in the notification area only while the Share folder is switched on.
Password-protected and digitally signed PDFs, old Office files (.doc, .xls, .ppt) and camera RAW files are not rewritten; Veil says why.
Free to try for 14 days with every feature. After that Veil needs a licence to keep working; without one it opens only a screen for entering a key, and files put in the Share folder are no longer cleaned (the screen says so). Files already cleaned stay yours, and presets and history are kept for when a licence is active.

One-time purchase for one PC. Includes every version released in the following 12 months; the version you have keeps working after that.

See the hidden information inside your photos, videos and documents, and remove it before you share them, without touching the picture quality.

See what is inside

Clean with one click

Nothing is lost

Your originals are safe

Also

Good to know

A closer look.

Need somethinglike this built?

Veil

See the hidden information inside your photos, videos and documents, and remove it before you share them, without touching the picture quality.

See what is inside

Clean with one click

Nothing is lost

Your originals are safe

Also

Good to know

A closer look.

Need somethinglike this built?