Photo redaction
The metadata stripper removes what is hidden inside a photo. This tool covers what is visible in it: faces, license plates, house numbers, street signs, screens and anything else that could identify a person or a place.
- Choose a photo (or try the sample scene).
- Drag over anything that should not be seen. Pick a black box, pixelate or blur first.
- Save the redacted copy and share that one instead of the original.
Drop a photo anywhere in this box
JPEG, PNG or WebP.
No photo handy? It is a made-up street with a house number, a street sign, a license plate and a face.
On a phone or tablet: drag one finger across the picture to draw an area. The page does not scroll while your finger is on the picture, so scroll using the space above or below it. Tap Undo last if you slip. Click and drag on the picture to cover an area. Draw as many as you need; the yellow outline marks the latest one and disappears from the saved file. Keyboard: press Add a box, then use the arrow keys to move it and Shift+arrow keys to resize it.
What to cover before you share a photo
- Faces of anyone who has not agreed to be shown, including people in the background and in reflections.
- License plates, house numbers and street signs. Together with the background they tell someone exactly where you were.
- Screens, documents, badges, name tags, mail and tickets that happen to be in the frame.
- Distinctive marks such as tattoos, unusual clothing or jewelry, and vehicles with stickers or damage.
- Reflections in windows, glasses, mirrors and shiny surfaces, which often show what is behind the camera.
- Landmarks and skylines that place the photo in a particular area.
Black box, pixelate or blur?
- Use the black box for anything sensitive. It replaces the pixels completely, so nothing can be recovered from the saved file.
- Pixelate and blur are weaker. Software can sometimes partly rebuild a face, a number or text from a light blur or coarse pixelation, and it gets better all the time. They look nicer, so they are fine for casual privacy, but do not rely on them to hide a person at risk or a readable number.
- The tool makes the pixelation and blur strong to reduce the risk, but a black box is always safer.
What this can and cannot do
- Your original file is not changed. The saved copy has "-redacted" added to the file name. Once you have checked it, you can delete the original (it still has the uncovered picture and its hidden data) and rename the copy as you like.
- The saved copy is re-encoded, so a JPEG may be very slightly different in quality. That is the price of burning the covered areas in permanently.
- It does not find faces or plates for you. You choose what to cover, so look at the whole picture carefully, including the edges and background.
- It cannot hide what is still recognisable around a covered area: clothing, a distinctive haircut, a landmark, a pose, or the scene itself.
- Very large photos are reduced to fit your browser. Only JPEG, PNG and WebP are handled; for iPhone HEIC photos, set the camera to "Most Compatible" or convert to JPEG first.
- Metadata is removed from the saved copy as a side effect. If you only want to remove hidden data and keep the picture exactly as it is, use the metadata stripper, which does not re-encode the image.