Color profile verses working space

[ajax]

Another point of confusion pertains to how one determines the color (?ICC) profile of an image file.  For example, is there data that is part of the image data that defines the color profile or is it something that gets identified only by metadata.  Something I notice is that when an image file, like a photograph, is opened by GIMP and subsequently a file is exported in a format such as jpg the metadata associated with the original image file is mostly gone.  Certainly there is no color profile identified in the metadata of the exported file.  Even when GIMP is allowed to convert the opened file to its' preference for sRGB you can't tell that the exported file is sRGB by looking at the metadata.

I am aware that GIMP 2.8 admits to deficient metadata handling and that may explain this problem.  I've been hoping that GIMP 2.10 will be better.  Am I dreaming?

I'm no expert but it seems like this is important when GIMP is used to develop photographs.