We've all seen footage on television where the faces of the people in a video were blurred out to protect their privacy. With YouTube increasingly becoming a place many people around the world go to find footage of current news events, there is an increasing need for people who upload videos to the sharing service to be able to maintain the privacy of people in the video.
YouTube has announced a new tool that will allow users to blur out the faces of a person or persons in the footage. The tool can be used for a wide range of purposes from protecting the identity of people involved in protests to blurring faces of other children in the video of your child's birthday party.
Once a video is uploaded to YouTube, the user only needs to click a box for "Blur All Faces." Users will get a preview video in the editing area so they can watch the video and ensure that all appropriate faces are blurred out.
YouTube warns that the tool uses emerging technology and that sometimes it has difficulty detecting faces depending on the angle, lighting, obstructions, and video quality.
YouTube says that it's possible certain faces and frames may not be blurred and if user isn't satisfied with the quality of the blurring in the video when the filter is applied, they should keep the video private. To add even more privacy, the user can also choose to have YouTube delete the original video once the blurring is applied.
