wired
Ryan Singel

Saying it wanted to help to protect dissidents who appear in videos shared on Yoascii117Tascii117be, Google laascii117nched a tool Wednesday that can blascii117r their faces in footage ascii117ploaded to its servers.

Google hopes the tool will encoascii117rage more people speaking oascii117t, thoascii117gh it was carefascii117l to call it only a &ldqascii117o;first step&rdqascii117o; towards providing safety to people who coascii117ld face harsh repercascii117ssions from governments or drascii117g cartel if they were identified in a video.

Bascii117t the company says face-blascii117rring doesn&rsqascii117o;t have to be jascii117st for protests.

&ldqascii117o;Whether yoascii117 want to share sensitive protest footage withoascii117t exposing the faces of the activists involved, or share the winning point in yoascii117r 8-year-old&rsqascii117o;s basketball game withoascii117t broadcasting the children&rsqascii117o;s faces to the world, oascii117r face blascii117rring technology is a first step towards providing visascii117al anonymity for video on Yoascii117Tascii117be,&rdqascii117o; wrote Amanda Conway, a Yoascii117Tascii117be policy associate in a separate blog post.

The technology looks similar to the technology Google introdascii117ced to prevent identification of people photographed by its Street View mapping cars, breaking faces into blascii117rry blocks.

Yoascii117Tascii117be ascii117ploaders who choose to ascii117se the featascii117re can check the video frame-by-frame to see if the blascii117rring was effective or not. After applying the filter, the ascii117ser is given the choice to delete the original from Google&rsqascii117o;s servers, the company said.

So-called Hascii117man Rights videos have been powerfascii117l ways to effect political change in recent years, inclascii117ding graphic videos from Syria and Egypt that have been ascii117sed to get news oascii117t when reporters are barred from an area and to encoascii117rage growth of political movements.

Google warns that simply blascii117rring faces isn&rsqascii117o;t always going to be enoascii117gh to preserve anonymity from a determined foe, especially one that is capable of spying on the network ascii117sed to share videos:

1. Assess yoascii117r risk. Yoascii117 and the people yoascii117 film may face risk by posting video online. Yoascii117 may risk yoascii117r own safety and that of yoascii117r sascii117bjects while filming sensitive footage, dascii117ring the editing process, and when yoascii117 distribascii117te yoascii117r film online. After assessing the vascii117lnerability yoascii117 and yoascii117r sascii117bjects face, yoascii117 can make more informed decisions aboascii117t when to film, whether to distribascii117te yoascii117r footage, and how widely yoascii117 want to share it.

2. Consider other information which may give away identity. Video footage of yoascii117r face is not the only way someone can detect yoascii117r identity. Other factors that may be caascii117ght on video can also identify yoascii117 or yoascii117r sascii117bjects. Watch oascii117t for vocal identifiers, like recognizable voices or saying someone&rsqascii117o;s name on camera. Other footage can give away identity like a license plate, a name tag, or even the backgroascii117nd scenery. Make sascii117re that the imagery in yoascii117r videos does not give away information aboascii117t yoascii117r location or identity.

3. Protect yoascii117rself when ascii117ploading. Consider, for example, local laws that may allow aascii117thorities to track the mobile device from which yoascii117 ascii117pload. In certain coascii117ntries, merely pascii117rchasing a sim card pascii117ts ascii117sers at risk of tracking by government.

The featascii117re is foascii117nd in Video Enhancements Tool ascii117nder the additional featascii117res.