Léonie,
I had to calm myself down after reading the completely tone-deaf response to my question.
I give you kudos for the good intentions in the post, which provides answers to questions that I did not ask.
1) Apple is correct in disabling by default "All Photos Data" out of the box. It is a good setting for those who lack the security knack to know any better, which is OK .. I get it!!
That being said, I (as the end user) am within my purview (as the one who now owns the device) to accept the security risk by enabling by default "All Photos Data". Apple does not own this device. An enterprise does not own and manage this device. This part of your response is completely tone-deaf and disregards my ability to accept the security risk - "So it would be risky to share the photos with all metadata outright, without reminding us to think about it."
Who are you to lecture me?!?!
2) "There may be other people in the photo, who would object to their data being shared." Seriously?!?! If I am sharing the photo in the first place, then that privacy concern you are citing (which, to your credit, is completely legitimate) has already flown the coop. Disabling by default the inclusion of EXIF data fails to prevent me from sharing the photos against someone's privacy wishes. There are still ways to tag location data on the photo even if the EXIF data is stripped (ever hear of tagging location in a Facebook post?!?!). Horse leaving then closing the barn door works really well.
3) Your response TOTALLY!! answers a question... that I did not ask - "If you want to be sure to save the photos with all metadata, save them to iCloud Drive...". Yes, I am fully aware of that workflow, which is completely separate from the one I am describing.
Dear Cupertino,
If someone is going to answer this question going forward, then please let it be a competent software engineer who understands the technology.
My workflow is that I like to make a smaller-sized version on device (i.e., on the iPhone Xr) that retains all the EXIF data without having to go through the less-convenient workflow that Léonie. Change "iCloud" to "Google Photos", and I have already verified that the EXIF data carries over... a workflow which COMPLETELY FAILS!! to scratch my itch.
For some years, I have been experiencing the problem where the EXIF data is being stripped from the smaller file when I open it off-device (i.e., outside of the iPhone Xr). I recently cobbled a workflow that sometimes works to retain the EXIF data where:
1) Start a new email.
2) Select photo or photos.
3) Select "Small" for file size.
4) The resulting .jpeg file usually has the EXIF data. Yes, I am deliberate in mentioning the .jpeg file extension. The EXIF data comes in stripped off in the files with the .jpg extension.
Even if I start with the sharing screen then enable the "All Photos Data" option, I am still receiving .jpg files with the EXIF data stripped.
My workflow is a lot quicker and more convenient than uploading files to iCloud, saving it somewhere else off-device, THEN figuring out how to shrink the files. These are two completely DIFFERENT workflows.
While I appreciate Léonie's good intentions, I can live with the answer of "tough stuff, pound sand, and live with it". It just would be nice to have a response from an actual technically-minded person.