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Face Blur Tool

// PRIVACY • FACE DETECTION • BLUR ANONYMIZATION

Blur is not redaction, and a missed face is not reported Blurring and pixelation are reversible by reconstruction models, and the detector silently skips faces it does not find. If disclosure of an identity would harm someone, this tool is not sufficient on its own. Open for the full scope limits.

What this tool actually does

Runs a face detector in your browser and applies a blur, pixelation or solid box over each region it finds. Nothing is uploaded, and the processing is genuinely local.

Local processing is a privacy property of the tool. It is not a guarantee about the image you export.

Why blur is not redaction

  • Blur and pixelation are reversible. They are lossy filters, not deletion. The underlying structure survives, and reconstruction models recover recognisable faces from moderately obscured regions. Strength helps and does not make it safe.
  • Only a solid box removes the pixels. If the identity genuinely must not be recoverable, use the box, and confirm on the exported file rather than the preview.
  • The detector misses faces, and does not tell you. Profiles, partial occlusion, motion blur, small or distant faces, unusual angles, masks and poor lighting all cause misses. A clean-looking result is not confirmation that every face was found.
  • Faces are not the only identifier. Tattoos, scars, jewellery, clothing, gait, a name badge, a licence plate, a screen in the background, a reflection, or the location itself will identify a person with the face fully removed.
  • Metadata is not touched. EXIF GPS coordinates, timestamps, device serial numbers and thumbnails can survive an export and can identify who, where and when on their own.

Detection is also not uniformly accurate across skin tones, ages and face coverings, so the people most likely to be missed are not a random sample.

Never rely on this alone for

  • Publishing or broadcasting images of identifiable people, especially children, patients, protesters, witnesses or anyone at risk.
  • Legal disclosure, discovery, evidence, or a freedom-of-information response.
  • Medical, clinical or research images subject to HIPAA, GDPR or an ethics approval.
  • Law enforcement, immigration, safeguarding or asylum material.
  • Anything where a re-identification would put a person in physical, legal or professional danger.

If the stakes are real

Use an opaque box rather than a blur, strip metadata separately, review every frame by eye rather than trusting the detector, and export at a resolution that does not preserve more than you intend. Where a law, an ethics approval or a court process governs the release, follow its redaction procedure, which will not be a browser tool.

No warranty. No liability. You assume all risk. This page and its output are provided as-is and as-available, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including accuracy, completeness, detection reliability, irreversibility of any obscuration, fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, legal or regulatory sufficiency, or non-infringement. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author accepts no liability for any loss, harm, distress, exposure, re-identification, regulatory penalty, cost or claim arising from use of or reliance on this page.

Independent verification required. Check every exported image yourself, confirm metadata has been removed, and follow the governing legal, ethical or organisational redaction procedure. That procedure and professional judgement control; where this page disagrees with them, this page is wrong.

Consequential damages excluded. To the maximum extent permitted by law, in no event will the author or maintainers be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, punitive or consequential damages, including loss of use, data, profits or business interruption, however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability or tort including negligence, arising out of or in connection with this page, even if advised of the possibility of such damage.

Indemnity. By using this page you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the author and maintainers against any claim, demand, loss or expense arising out of your use of it or of anything derived from it.

Severability. If any part of this notice is held unenforceable, the remainder continues to apply, and the unenforceable part is limited to the least extent necessary rather than struck out.

Upload an image or start camera to begin
face detection and blur

Blur is reversible and missed faces are not reported. For anything sensitive use a solid box, strip metadata separately, and check every exported image yourself. See the full disclaimer at the top of the page.