> Metadata in images serves no other purpose than invading privacy
I don't upload my photos anywhere public. I keep metadata on so I can sort them by location. Uploading photos to the public web is really what is invading your privacy.
Exactly. It serves great purpose to me. I love being able to see exactly where a photo was taken. I have cherished vacation photos from many years ago and I don't remember where we were. When location data is there, I can pinpoint the exact trail or campsite, even when it was very remote. There are also photos of my kids where I'm not sure which house/area we were living in at the time. Location data solves this.
Since the location information can easily be removed but is extremely difficult to add, the clear solution to me seems to be to strip it when not wanted, and only upload your photo to trusted services. Most legit services will strip the info anyway (facebook, slack for example).
If you followed the story of
Shia LaBeouf's "He Will Not Divide Us" where they used things like aircraft flight paths to find the location of a flagpole that moved multiple times, it isn't clear that stripping metadata will save you anyway. I assume anything that I post will leak the location for a dedicated enough person.
I don't upload my photos anywhere public. I keep metadata on so I can sort them by location. Uploading photos to the public web is really what is invading your privacy.