HIDE FACES AND LICENSE PLATES
Hide faces and license plates in a photo
To hide a face in a photo, upload the photo and draw a box over the face with your mouse or finger; in the downloaded copy the box is solid black. Plates and text are covered the same way, and the box editor opens as soon as the report is ready. Instead of blurring faces we use solid boxes, because blur can sometimes be reversed. You can remove the location and other details in the same step.
Choose one or several photos or videos
Photos: JPG, TIFF, HEIC, WebP, PNG, AVIF (up to 50 MB). Video: MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM (up to 200 MB). Up to 10 files at a time.
FROM IMAGE SHARE
To check it, the file is sent to the EXIF Scanner server; it is deleted from public access after 24 hours, kept up to 24 more hours in an admin-only area, then permanently deleted. No public link is created.
Cleaned files download as one ZIP. The ZIP is built in your browser; if the files are too large for this device, they download one by one instead. File names are kept, with a suffix that says what was done.
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Downloaded
Pick this new file when you share. It is in your Downloads folder as:
More options
HIDE FACES AND PLATES
Draw a box with your mouse or finger over every face, license plate or piece of text you want to hide. In the downloaded copy the boxes are solid black. We do not blur, because blur can sometimes be reversed; nothing of the picture is left under a solid black box.
With a mouse or touch: drag on an empty part of the photo to draw a box, drag a box to move it, and drag the corners of the selected box to resize it. While your finger is on the photo the page does not scroll; hold outside the photo to scroll.
With a keyboard: "Add a box" puts a box in the middle of the photo and selects it. The arrow keys move the selected box, Shift with the arrow keys resizes it, and Delete removes it. Move between boxes with Tab; Ctrl+Z undoes the last change.
No boxes yet. Drag on the photo or press "Add a box".
Small preview images embedded in the file are removed with every option, because they hold the photo without the boxes.
The boxes are applied on our server to the copy of the file you uploaded for analysis; like every upload, that file is deleted from public access after 24 hours, kept up to 24 more hours in an admin-only area, then permanently deleted. The redacted copy is deleted from the server once it has been sent to you. In the downloaded file the black boxes are burned into the pixels; the original photo on your device is unchanged.
Show all technical details
Marked rows are details others can see when you share the file.
A separate thumbnail stored inside the file; it may not match the main image after editing.
Download thumbnailYour file is deleted from public access after 24 hours, kept up to 24 more hours in an admin-only area, then permanently deleted. No public link is created. Privacy Policy
How it works
- Upload the photo. JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, HEIC or TIFF, up to 50 MB. Once the report is ready, the box editor opens.
- Draw the boxes. Drag over everything you want hidden. Drag a box to move it, drag its corners to resize it, delete it from the list; "Undo" takes back the last change. Up to 50 boxes.
- Choose the details and download. The default option removes the location. "Apply the boxes and download" prepares the copy; its file name gets a "-redacted" suffix.
It works with a keyboard too: "Add a box" puts a box in the middle of the photo, the arrow keys move the selected box, Shift with the arrow keys resizes it, and Delete removes it.
Why black boxes and not blur?
Blurring and pixelating scramble the picture rather than remove it. For text with a known format, such as a plate, blurring every possible plate the same way and comparing the results is sometimes enough to guess the blurred text. Nothing of the picture is left under a solid black box: every pixel inside it is written as black.
Boxes are rounded outwards to whole pixels and grown by 1 pixel on every side, so no half-covered original pixel is left along the edge. The boxes are applied on our server to a copy of the file you uploaded; the browser only decides where they go.
Blur versus a black box
How blurring tools differ from our black box, in short. We offer no automatic detection and no video support.
| Question | Blur | EXIF Scanner black box |
|---|---|---|
| Can the hidden part be recovered? | Sometimes. Blur and pixelation scramble the picture rather than remove it. | No. Every pixel inside the box is written as black. |
| Is the embedded thumbnail removed? | Depends on the tool. Methods that only change the main picture leave the thumbnail unboxed. | Yes, with every option. If one were left in the copy, the download is refused. |
| Is the location removed in the same step? | Depends on the tool. | Yes, with the default option. It stays if you pick "Keep metadata". |
| Automatic face and plate detection | Some tools have it. | No. You draw the boxes. |
| Video | Some tools have it. | No. Photos only. |
Why the embedded thumbnail is removed
Phones and cameras put a small copy of the photo inside most JPEGs. Some editing methods only change the main picture and leave that copy as it was, with the plate still visible in it. So the EXIF thumbnail, preview images, XMP and Photoshop thumbnails, and maker notes that can carry previews are removed with every option. The finished file is read again before it is sent; if any embedded image were left, the download is refused.
What happens to the details in the file?
For a test we made a 1600 × 1200 pixel JPEG tagged like a phone photo, with a 160 × 120 pixel embedded thumbnail. The report showed 40 fields. We drew two boxes, downloaded a copy with each option and scanned it again:
| Option | What it removes | Fields left | Embedded thumbnail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remove location (default) | The GPS location | 26 of 40 | None |
| Safe for social media | Location, dates, name, copyright and serial number | 19 of 40 | None |
| Remove all metadata | Every EXIF, XMP and IPTC tag | 6 of 40 | None |
| Keep metadata | Only the orientation tag, embedded images, maker notes and face tags | 34 of 40 | None |
With "Keep metadata" only the 6 thumbnail fields went missing from the test file; the location, date and device details stayed. The orientation tag is always removed, because the pixels are already saved the right way up.
The report shows whether the photo has a stored location before you draw any box. A black box covers a sign or a plate in the picture, while the GPS record in the file is separate information; how it is read is explained on finding where a photo was taken.
Format and quality
- JPG, PNG, WebP and AVIF keep their format. JPG is saved at high quality (92) without reducing colour detail (4:4:4).
- HEIC comes back as JPG, because many browsers and Windows PCs cannot open HEIC files.
- TIFF comes back as JPG, or as PNG if it has transparency.
- Video is not supported; boxes only apply to photos.
Check the result
Upload the copy you downloaded to this page again. The boxes should show as black, and the report's technical details should have no "Embedded thumbnail" section. Boxes are not placed automatically; in a crowded photo, check every face and plate yourself.
Frequently asked questions
How do I hide a face in a photo?
Upload the photo on this page; the box editor opens once the report is ready. Drag over the face with your mouse or finger to draw a box, then press "Apply the boxes and download". In the downloaded copy the box is solid black; the face is not blurred, every pixel inside the box is written as black.
Can the picture under a black box be brought back?
Not from the downloaded copy. The pixels inside the box are written as black and embedded thumbnails are removed, so the unboxed picture is nowhere in the copy. The original photo on your device is unchanged, and the file uploaded to our server is deleted from public access after 24 hours, kept up to 24 more hours in an admin-only area, then permanently deleted.
Are faces and plates found automatically?
No. You draw the boxes; there is no automatic face or plate detection. In a crowded photo, check every face. You can draw up to 50 boxes on one photo.
Where does my photo go while the boxes are applied?
The boxes are applied on our server to the copy of the file you uploaded for analysis. Like every upload, that file is deleted from public access after 24 hours, kept up to 24 more hours in an admin-only area, then permanently deleted. The redacted copy is deleted from the server once it has been sent to you. No public link is created.
Is the location removed too?
The default option, "Remove location", removes the GPS location and keeps the date and device details. "Safe for social media" also removes dates, name and serial number. With "Keep metadata" the location stays in the copy.
Can I hide faces in a video?
No. Boxes only apply to photos. For videos, only the location and other metadata can be removed.