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Anonymous Camera – Anonymize photos and videos in real time, locally on device (theverge.com)
3 points by playgroundAI on June 11, 2020 | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments



We’ve been working on Anonymous Camera for quite a while, designing it together with investigative journalists, researchers and activists. Real-time, on-device anonymisation is a vital tool when you have to make sure that you do not keep any potentially identifying material while you’re in the field.

For journalists, we developed “Split Screen”, which lets you anonymise only one side of the frame while keeping another one clear, for example for interviews. This can be unlocked through an in-app purchase together with the option to remove our watermark. In the first month, all proceeds from this in-app purchase will be donated to Black Visions Collective and Unicorn Riot.

We hope, especially right now, this tool can also be useful to even more people beyond journalists. When using it, keep in mind that it’s not always perfect and the people in your footage could be identified by other means than just their face or body. Additionally, methods like “Blur” are potentially susceptible to be reversed through adversarial attacks. Check out our “Safety & Privacy” card to learn more.


Really well done, purchased. Consider using some graphic representation on the view finder to express split screen (which side is blurred, which side is not) and allowing the size of the solid or blur to be adjustable by the user (in my testing, it was occasionally not large enough to cover a subject’s face).

I might be getting old, but it wasn’t clear immediately that I needed to hold the shutter button to record, or that recording was not a toggle (and removing my finger stopped recording immediately).




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