海角大神

Both parents and political activists (in some countries) will appreciate this. There are now two ways to avoid (or at least reduce) unwanted recognition on YouTube: Make your video private or blur the faces in it.聽

YouTube just announced聽a new tool that allows users to obscure faces 鈥渨ith the click of a button.鈥� It cites last year鈥檚 鈥淐ameras Everywhere鈥� report聽from international human rights organization WITNESS as warning that no video-sharing site or hardware manufacturer offered that identity protection. It鈥檚 great for agents of change, and everyone else, that they can protect their own and, thoughtfully, others鈥� identities in videos they post.

How? In its blog, YouTube writes: 鈥淥nce you鈥檝e chosen the video that you鈥檇 like to edit within our Video Enhancements tool, go to Additional Features and click the 鈥楢pply鈥� button below 鈥楤lur All Faces.鈥� Before you publish, you will see a preview of what your video will look like with faces blurred. When you save the changes to your video, a new copy is created with the blurred faces. You will then be given the option to delete the original video.鈥�

This facial聽non-recognition technology鈥檚 not perfect yet, though, so it鈥檚 good there鈥檚 an option to post videos privately and send a link to an audience of one鈥檚 choosing. YouTube says that, because 鈥渢his is emerging technology 鈥� [it] sometimes has difficulty detecting faces depending on the angle, lighting, obstructions and video quality. It鈥檚 possible that certain faces or frames will not be blurred.鈥�

But remember that, just like with still photos, comments, and all other digital media, stuff can be copied and pasted in places where it wasn鈥檛 intended to be seen. It鈥檚 pretty impossible to keep anything digital completely private.