What EXIF metadata actually is
EXIF is a block of information a camera writes into an image file: the date and time, the device, camera settings, and often a GPS location. It is genuinely useful for organising photos and understanding how a shot was taken.
The catch is that it lives inside the file as plain, editable data. Nothing binds it to the pixels or vouches for it. It was designed for description, and it does that job well, but it was never meant to be evidence.
Why it cannot be trusted as evidence
Free tools can change any EXIF field in seconds. You can set the date to last year, move the GPS coordinates across the world, swap the device name, or delete the whole block. Many apps and social platforms also strip metadata automatically on upload, so a genuine photo can arrive with nothing at all.
That means metadata cuts both ways: it can be forged on a fake, and it can be missing from something real. Either way, it cannot tell an independent party what actually happened, so it does not settle a dispute.
The date in a photo does not prove when it was taken
A specific worry deserves its own answer: the date stamped in a photo tells you when the device says the shot happened, not when it actually did. That date is written by the phone or camera from a clock the user controls, so it can be set to any day in seconds. A screenshot, a file modified date, or a name like IMG_20260101 is even weaker, because each is just another editable label.
What fixes the when is a timestamp the sender cannot set. Danaya records a server timestamp at the moment of capture and binds it to the image, so the time does not depend on the device clock and cannot be back-dated. That is the difference between a date a photo carries and a date a photo can prove.
What actually holds up: a seal made at capture
Proof needs to be created at capture and tied to the file so tampering shows. Danaya seals a photo the instant it is taken by computing a SHA-256 fingerprint of the file and signing it together with the GPS location and a server timestamp, which the sender cannot set by hand. Edit the file afterwards and the fingerprint no longer matches.
Because capture is live only, an imported or AI-generated image cannot earn a valid seal. Anyone can then confirm the result from a public verification link, with no account and nothing to install. Where EXIF is a note anyone can rewrite, a seal is a check anyone can run.