EXIF Tool (Coming soon)

EXIF information of an image is the metadata of an image which is stored in the image file itself by different software programs. These software programs could include camera software which first digitizes the image and also various image editing programs like Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or Microsoft Image Editor. Along with the software which has been used to edit the image, the EXIF information might also record the dates of when the image was captured and when it was modified with. Checking these dates can reveal important information of when this image was edited.

Even though the EXIF information would help indicate image tampering the information is often not conclusive in identifying image tampering. This is because a lot of image editing software often do not update the EXIF information in a reliable way. Few image manipulation software also go to the extent of stripping even the pre-existing EXIF data before modifying the image.

Other concern with EXIF data is that a fraudulent user might remove the EXIF data before submitting the verification document. There are software available which can strip an image of all EXIF data and also change it to values which might not reveal the image tampering.

Additional concern on relying on EXIF information to indicate image tampering is that sometimes users might crop the document before submitting for verification. This cropping might be harmless and it might change the EXIF information to indicate edits done by the software. So even though the EXIF information might be able to highlight the tampering it might not be sufficient to indicate if the tampering was a harmless crop or a fraudulent modification.