Brave’s desktop browser now strips a hidden identifier that Meta embeds in photos downloaded from Facebook and Instagram.
Brave says a photo you save from either site on a computer no longer carries the code, though whether that holds for every desktop user is disputed (see below). A photo you upload through Brave goes up as a clean copy. Photos saved in Chrome still carry it, Brave’s test found. Brave’s Android and iOS apps don’t have the feature yet.
According to Brave’s post by Shivan Kaul Sahib, the company’s VP of Privacy and Security, the removal starts with desktop version 1.98. Brave says the change makes it harder for Meta to link the same photo across accounts and sites.
What the identifier is
It’s a value that starts with “FBMD” and is followed by a long string of characters. Meta stores it in the “Special Instructions” field of the photo’s IPTC metadata, a format defined by the International Press Telecommunications Council.
The IPTC found it in 2019. Its write-up, published on 22 July 2019, says Facebook appears to keep the value constant even when another user re-uploads the image. The separate Job ID field changes with every upload. The IPTC adds Facebook doesn’t document the role of these values publicly, so they are “the subject of significant speculation”.
Brave ran the same test in July 2026 and says the identifier is still there.
The IPTC also found Facebook removes most other metadata: a few rights-related fields survive in the IIM and EXIF formats, and XMP loses all its fields. Brave’s post doesn’t say whether the creator and copyright fields in a photo’s metadata survive the removal.
Why Brave says it matters
Brave says the identifier travels with the file, so a photo moves between accounts with its tag intact. Its example is a pseudonymous Instagram account that posts a photo downloaded from a friend’s Facebook post. Brave says that in that case Meta could use the identifier to connect the Instagram account to the friend’s post, and to the real-name network around it.
Meta hasn’t revealed exactly what it uses this identifier for or why it is added to image metadata. It’s possible Meta doesn’t use the identifier for tracking. However, with no public information, we have to take into account any possibility and the effects on user privacy.
Brave, privacy update post
Brave’s X post puts it more briefly: “To be safe, we’re removing it.” The reporting doesn’t include any response from Meta.
What Brave removes, and whether it’s on
When you save an image, Brave removes the identifier before the download finishes, so the file is clean even if you later upload it with another browser or app. When you upload an image to a website, Brave sends a clean copy and leaves the original on your computer as it was.
Brave describes the removal as automatic. A Linux guide from FOSS Linux reads it differently. After testing Brave 1.99.57 and reading its source, the site says there’s no setting for the feature. It says the code declares the feature disabled by default, with the flags page as the only switch. Brave hasn’t confirmed that reading. It is one reviewer’s test, on Linux, of Facebook photos.
PPC Land reports the stripper sat behind an experimental flag called brave-strip-image-metadata-v1 during testing in September. It says Brave’s post doesn’t say whether that flag still governs the feature or whether every desktop user has it enabled.
Brave’s own test is to download the same Facebook photo in Chrome and in Brave, then open each file in a metadata viewer. In Chrome, the “Special Instructions” field shows a value starting with “FBMD”. In Brave, the value is gone. Brave points to a viewer at shivankaul.com, and the IPTC’s Get IPTC Photo Metadata tool also works.
What’s not done yet
Brave wants to add the ability to remove geolocation, device, date, and time data from images. Those details might have legitimate uses, such as organising an online photo library, so Brave will give users control over when the data is removed.
Brave also plans to bring the feature to Android and iOS, with no date. But according to PPC Land, the engineer leading the work wrote in October that Android wasn’t scoped for the current launch. A team member coordinating the tests noted iOS was out of scope.
A user opened issue 5238 on 14 July 2019, eight days before the IPTC published its findings, and PPC Land says Brave closed it as completed on 8 October 2026. According to PPC Land, the 1.98.60 desktop release notes, posted 27 October, listed stripping metadata from images on download and upload without naming Meta. PiunikaWeb was among the first to spot the wording.
PPC Land also ties the change to Brave’s ad business: Brave sells its own ads through Brave Ads. Meta has been in the news over photos before: in July it pulled an Instagram feature that let users generate images from public accounts’ photos after days of backlash.
