Every document you create carries invisible baggage. Author names, edit timestamps, software versions, GPS coordinates from photos, tracked changes, hidden comments — it's all embedded in your files, silently waiting to be discovered.
What kind of metadata are we talking about?
- Author & organization name — whoever's Microsoft Office license created the file
- Edit history — when the document was created, modified, printed, and by whom
- Hidden comments & tracked changes — "deleted" text that's still in the file
- Embedded objects — images that may contain EXIF data with GPS coordinates
- Software fingerprint — exact version of the tool that created the document
- File paths — the full folder path where the document was saved (e.g.,
C:\Users\JohnDoe\Legal Cases\Smith vs Jones\)
Why should you care?
If you're a lawyer sending documents to opposing counsel, that metadata could reveal your case strategy. If you're a business sending proposals, competitors could see your internal file organization. If you're submitting documents for compliance, hidden data could trigger GDPR violations.
How to clean your documents
DocInspector's Audit module scans your entire folder tree and shows you exactly what metadata exists in every file. You can then sanitize documents in batch — removing author info, edit history, comments, and embedded objects in one click. All locally, all offline.
Don't let your documents say more than you intended.