VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA — 9 October 2026 — goldenSoftwareENGINEERS®, the technology company behind snapWONDERS, today announced that its forensic analysis now runs more than 80 distinct checks across photos and video. Which checks apply depends on the file's format, and each one looks for a different kind of evidence, from where a photo was taken to whether parts of it were edited, generated by AI, or used to hide something.
Alongside the milestone, the company has rebuilt its public feature catalogue so that every check the platform runs is listed and described in plain language, with search and a filter for photos or video.
What the checks cover
The checks fall into six groups:
- Privacy — what a file reveals about the person who took it: GPS location, device serial numbers, capture times, author names, embedded thumbnails, and text visible in the image itself.
- Origin — whether a file is a genuine camera original, which software last saved it, and whether its metadata is consistent with the device it claims to come from.
- Manipulation — evidence of editing, from Error Level Analysis and copy-move detection to cut and spliced video and audio.
- AI detection — whether a photo or video was generated by AI, including signed Content Credentials that declare AI generation.
- Security — content hidden inside a file: steganography, appended data, files that are two formats at once, and embedded attachments.
- Format and structure — container-level checks that catch re-packaged, mislabelled or tampered files.
Results are reported as two grades — authenticity and exposure — with each check's contribution shown, so a reader can see why a file scored the way it did.
Checks now listed for the first time
Several checks have run for some time without a public description. The updated catalogue now includes them:
- Hidden phone-maker records — data some phones write after the end of the image, where ordinary metadata viewers never look.
- Screenshot declaration — files whose own metadata says they are a screenshot.
- Illustration and cartoon detection — drawn or rendered artwork rather than a photograph.
- Redaction and blackout detection — solid shapes painted over part of an image.
How the checks are counted
The figure counts distinct checks. Where the same check runs on both photos and video, it is counted once, and several checks that run together are described on the catalogue as a single technique.
Availability
Analysis is free, requires no account, and supports more than 20 image formats, including camera RAW files, as well as common video formats. The full catalogue is at snapwonders.com/analyse-features.
About snapWONDERS
snapWONDERS is a digital media platform developed by goldenSoftwareENGINEERS®, founded by Kenneth Springer. The platform addresses privacy, accessibility and metadata concerns in digital media — offering tools for image analysis, media conversion, and file concealment through snapWONDERS Vaultify. snapWONDERS and Vaultify are available on the clearnet, Tor and I2P.
Analyse a file: snapwonders.com/upload/analyse Contact: [email protected]
