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Explore possibilities for users to remove/exclude geo data from EXIF on images
Open, Needs TriagePublicFeature

Description

User story: As an uploader of images, I want to remove geolcation data from my images, so that I can hide sensitive information like my home address or protected wildlife areas.

We have this:

There's currently no way for users to handle the geolocation data themselves. For existing images already on Commons, the removal of such data has to be done manually by an admin.

We want this:
Users should be able to control the removal of geolocation data from their images by themselves.

Acceptance Criteria:

  • For files that a user has contributed themselves, there should be a file page functionality/button that initiates the deletion of geolocation data from WMF databases (not the image itself)
  • On UploadWizard and Special:Upload, there should be a clear option for users to strip all location data out of files about to uploaded so they are never on Commons with that data in the first place
  • 3rd party upload tools should have the ability to indicate to WMF systems that files being uploaded from the tool in a specific session should have their geolocation data removed before being stored on WMF servers

Event Timeline

Q:

For files that a user has contributed themselves, there should be a file page functionality/button that initiates the deletion of geolocation data from WMF databases (not the image itself)

When you click the button, will it just delete the stuff right away? I'm pretty sure if you just do that (without... like... admin approval) some Commons people will bark at this.

Still to be determined. The button could kick off an admin review/deletion process. But we may have to explore whether the changing international legal landscape and trends toward user control of personal data will make more direct options necessary.

Q:

For files that a user has contributed themselves, there should be a file page functionality/button that initiates the deletion of geolocation data from WMF databases (not the image itself)

When you click the button, will it just delete the stuff right away? I'm pretty sure if you just do that (without... like... admin approval) some Commons people will bark at this.

So this task is both about the preventive and corrective workflows outlined in T218057?

We should probably split off a specific ticket for "Mechanism to remove geo data from EXIF of pre-existing images" as that workflow will be slightly different than removing it during upload (and possibly contentious).