Does PhotoSanitize upload my photographs to a cloud service?
No. Image inspection, sanitization, automatic visual detection, redaction, and verification take place locally on your Windows computer. Paid-edition activation and license validation may require an internet connection, but those functions are separate from image-content processing.
Does PhotoSanitize modify or delete the original image?
No. PhotoSanitize creates a separate sanitized output and retains the source. By default, the resulting file is saved in the same folder with _sanitized added to its filename. You can therefore compare both versions and repeat processing with different settings if necessary.
Can PhotoSanitize remove GPS coordinates?
Yes. Supported GPS metadata is included in the cleanup performed by the appropriate sanitization profiles. This can prevent the sanitized file from carrying embedded location coordinates, but it cannot conceal places that are recognizable in the visible photograph.
Can I remove metadata without reducing image quality?
In some cases, PhotoSanitize can clean supported metadata and container information without recompressing the existing encoded picture. This is particularly useful with JPEG files. Other operations, including reconstruction, visual redaction, and output format conversion, may require the image to be re-encoded.
Can PhotoSanitize hide faces and license plates?
Yes. Manual redaction is available in every edition, allowing you to conceal selected areas of a photograph. Pro and Enterprise also provide automatic detection of faces, license plates, visible text, QR codes, and barcodes. Automatic findings should be reviewed because the detectors can miss sensitive regions or identify content that does not need concealment.
Are redactions permanent?
Yes. PhotoSanitize replaces the selected output pixels with solid, opaque black content. A completed redaction is not an annotation that can simply be removed to reveal the original picture. If a redaction needs to be changed, return to the original photograph and create a new sanitized version.
Does PhotoSanitize always detect sensitive information automatically?
No. Automatic detection depends on image quality, object appearance, lighting, and other visual characteristics. It also cannot determine which visible details are confidential in every context. Review the complete picture and use manual redactions when required.
Can I sanitize several photographs together?
Yes. You can add multiple images or import complete folders. Standard permits up to five images per sanitization operation, while Pro and Enterprise do not have that edition-based batch limit. Practical capacity still depends on file size, available resources, and applicable input limits.
Which profile should I use for normal photo sharing?
Standard (Recommended) is the usual starting point. It removes supported nonessential metadata and additional content while preserving encoded picture data when possible. Metadata Only is useful when you want more conservative hidden-information cleanup. Rebuild and Maximum Privacy provide additional capabilities in Pro and Enterprise.
What is the difference between Rebuild and Maximum Privacy?
Rebuild creates a new image from decoded pixels without enabling automatic visual detection by default. Maximum Privacy adds automatic detection of faces, license plates, text, and codes, together with mandatory human review before redaction and sanitization.
Both profiles may affect image compression or other technical characteristics, so inspect the result when fidelity matters.
Does PhotoSanitize support HEIC photographs from smartphones?
PhotoSanitize can inspect supported HEIC and HEIF files. Operations requiring pixel decoding depend on compatible Windows image components. When Same format when supported is selected, these images normally produce PNG output rather than a newly encoded HEIC or HEIF file.
Can PhotoSanitize preserve animated images?
It can preserve supported multiframe content when the source format, output format, and selected operation allow it. Some profiles default to flattening the image to its first frame. Check the Frames setting before sanitizing an animation or multipage TIFF file, and inspect the output afterward.
Can companies and organizations use PhotoSanitize?
Yes. The application can be used for professional and organizational image preparation, including marketing photographs, customer images, employee event photographs, property images, and other material that needs review before distribution.
Pro provides advanced visual detection, custom settings, and additional reporting. Enterprise adds command-line processing, Certificates of Sanitization, and permitted Windows Server and virtual-machine deployment.
Organizations should also maintain appropriate access controls, review procedures, and recordkeeping practices.
Can PhotoSanitize run on Windows Server or in a virtual machine?
Enterprise is the edition licensed for supported Windows Server and virtual-machine environments. Standard and Pro are intended for eligible physical Windows workstations.
Can I automate sanitization?
Enterprise provides a command-line interface for analysis and the Metadata Only, Standard, and Rebuild profiles. You can use it with scripts and existing scheduling tools.
Maximum Privacy cannot be run headlessly because it requires interactive visual detection and human review. Command-line metadata cleanup should not replace inspection of sensitive information visible within photographs.
What does VERIFIED mean?
VERIFIED means the sanitized output passed the applicable technical verification checks. It does not guarantee that every possible privacy risk was identified or that the visible photograph is appropriate for public distribution.
An image may pass verification while still showing identifiable people, recognizable locations, or confidential information that was never selected for redaction.
Why are the original and sanitized SHA-256 fingerprints different?
A SHA-256 fingerprint is calculated from the complete file contents. Removing metadata, changing the container, or redacting pixels changes those contents, so the output will normally have a different fingerprint even if it looks the same.
The fingerprints help identify exact file versions and check whether a stored or transferred file has changed.
What reports are available?
Standard provides TXT reports. Pro and Enterprise additionally provide PDF, CSV, and JSON exports.
Enterprise also provides a PDF Certificate of Sanitization when every included image has successfully completed sanitization and verification.
Reports record processing information and can be useful for professional or organizational recordkeeping. They do not replace visual review or approval for publication.
Does PhotoSanitize preserve C2PA Content Credentials?
The normal sanitization policies remove embedded Content Credentials from sanitized outputs. PhotoSanitize can inspect supported C2PA information before processing and include applicable provenance validation information in reports.
If preserving the original provenance record is important, retain the source image separately.
Can I use PhotoSanitize without an internet connection?
Standard can perform its available local image-processing operations without paid activation. Pro and Enterprise require initial online activation and periodic revalidation, with temporary offline operation supported for up to 14 days after successful validation.
Image content itself does not need to be uploaded for processing.
Where can I download PhotoSanitize or get support?
You can find product information at PhotoSanitize, installation packages at Probativa Downloads, and assistance at Probativa Support.
For license conditions and software-update entitlements, see Probativa Licensing.