Swift: How to Delete EXIF data from picture taken with AVFoundation?

Question

I'm trying to get rid of the EXIF data from a picture taken with AVFoundation, How can I do this in swift (2) preferred, Objective-C is okay too, I know how to convert the code to swift.

Why? I have done my research and I see a lot of famous Social Media (Reddit Source and many more) do remove EXIF data for identity purposes and other purposes.

If you think this is duplicate post, please read what I'm asking and provide link. Thank you.

Answer 1

My answer is based a lot on this previous question. I adapted the code to work on Swift 2.0.

class ImageHelper {
  static func removeExifData(data: NSData) -> NSData? {
    guard let source = CGImageSourceCreateWithData(data, nil) else {
        return nil
    }
    guard let type = CGImageSourceGetType(source) else {
        return nil
    }
    let count = CGImageSourceGetCount(source)
    let mutableData = NSMutableData(data: data)
    guard let destination = CGImageDestinationCreateWithData(mutableData, type, count, nil) else {
        return nil
    }
    // Check the keys for what you need to remove
    // As per documentation, if you need a key removed, assign it kCFNull
    let removeExifProperties: CFDictionary = [String(kCGImagePropertyExifDictionary) : kCFNull, String(kCGImagePropertyOrientation): kCFNull]

    for i in 0..<count {
        CGImageDestinationAddImageFromSource(destination, source, i, removeExifProperties)
    }

    guard CGImageDestinationFinalize(destination) else {
        return nil
    }

    return mutableData;
  }
}

Then you can simply do something like this:

let imageData = ImageHelper.removeExifData(UIImagePNGRepresentation(image))

In my example, I remove the rotation and the EXIF data. You can easily search the keys if you need anything else removed. Just make extra checks on the data generated as it is an optional.