Image privacy
What actually happens to a photo when you use a tool here. The short answer: it never leaves your device.
Most online image tools upload your file to a server, process it there, and send it back. That means a copy of your photo, with everything in it, sits on someone else's computer for some length of time. ImgCruncher works differently, and this page explains exactly how, because a privacy promise is only worth as much as your ability to check it.
Processed in your browser, not on a server
When you drop an image into any tool here, your browser reads it into its own memory and processes it on your device using the Canvas and FileReader APIs that every modern browser provides. Resizing, compressing, converting, cropping, redacting: all of it happens locally. The finished file is handed back to you as a download. At no point is the original or the result sent to us or to anyone else.
This is structural, not a promise to trust
The privacy here does not depend on us choosing to be careful. It depends on how the tools are built. If the processing happens in your browser, there is simply nothing for us to store, log or leak, because we never receive the file. That is a stronger guarantee than any policy, because it removes the possibility rather than just prohibiting it.
What about EXIF and GPS data
Photos, especially from phones, carry hidden metadata: the camera model, the date, and often the GPS coordinates of where the photo was taken. Because our tools read the image and hand it back without sending it anywhere, that data stays with you throughout. Better still, most of our tools that re-encode an image, like the compressor and the converter, rebuild it from raw pixels, which strips that metadata out of the file you download. If you want to see what a photo is carrying before you share it, the metadata viewer shows you, and the blur and pixelate tool lets you redact anything visible.
Prove it right here
You do not have to take our word for it, and you do not have to leave this page. The check below converts a real image in your browser while it watches every way a browser can send data. If any of your image were uploaded, it would say so.
Or verify it yourself, by hand
If you would rather see it in your own browser's tools, two checks take under a minute each:
- Watch the Network tab. Open your browser's developer tools (F12, or right-click and Inspect), select the Network tab, and filter to Fetch/XHR. Now use any tool on the site. Your image never appears as an upload, because it is never sent.
- Pull the plug. Load a tool page, then turn off your wifi or internet, and use the tool anyway. It still works, because everything it needs is already on your device and nothing has to be sent.
Which tools strip metadata, and which keep it
It is worth being precise, because "processed privately" and "metadata removed" are different things.
| What you do | What happens to EXIF and GPS |
|---|---|
| Compress, convert, resize, crop, rotate, flip, watermark | Removed. These tools rebuild the file from raw pixels, so the original metadata block is not carried over |
| View metadata | Nothing is changed. The tool reads and displays what is there |
| Download the original untouched | Nothing is changed. If you did not process the file, it still carries everything it arrived with |
If your reason for stripping metadata is serious rather than tidy, check the output yourself with the metadata viewer before you publish. Verifying takes ten seconds and does not require trusting this paragraph.
What this protects you from, and what it does not
Being honest about the boundary matters more than a confident slogan.
- It protects you from us. We cannot see, store, log or lose your image, because we never receive it.
- It protects you from a breach here. There is no store of user images to breach.
- It does not protect the file on your own device. The original and the download both sit in your filesystem, and anyone with access to your machine can open them.
- It does not protect you after you share the file. Once you upload the result somewhere else, that service's rules apply, not ours.
- It does not make your browser private. Extensions you have installed run on this page like any other, and we cannot vouch for them.
Working with genuinely sensitive images
If you are redacting a document, an ID or anything with personal information in it, two practical notes. First, blurring is weaker than it looks: a soft blur over small text can sometimes be reversed, which is why our redaction guide recommends a solid block over a blur. Second, check the output rather than assuming, because a redaction that looks convincing on a phone screen may not survive being zoomed.
What we do collect
The site uses basic analytics and advertising that record ordinary visit information like which pages are viewed, and it stores your cookie choice in your browser. None of that involves the content of your images. The full detail is in our privacy policy and cookie policy.