FACEERASE
FaceErase finds the faces in your photos and video and lets you blur, black out, or mask them — before anything ever leaves your phone.
Coming to iPhone. Testing starts soon.
Tap a face to leave it. Everyone else is covered.
Pick whichever fits what you are publishing. You can mix them in the same shot.
Softens the face while keeping the shape of the scene. Useful when you want the photograph to still read as a crowd of people.
An opaque bar across the eyes. Nothing is recoverable from underneath, and it is obvious to a viewer that the image was deliberately redacted.
Replaces the face entirely with a graphic. Planned for a later release, alongside a library you can add to.
Open the camera and FaceErase draws a box around every face it finds, live, as you frame the shot. Tap the faces you want to leave visible. Take the photo, and everyone else is covered before it is saved.
Video works the same way. Faces are tracked as they move through the shot, and the protection is written into the footage itself — not laid over the top of an original that still exists underneath.
Already have photographs or footage that need protecting? Bring them in from your camera roll and cover faces the same way.
Photographs first. Video and camera roll import follow.
Locked behind Face ID or a PIN, so a photo roll of protected images is not one tap away from anyone holding your phone.
Faces are found live in the viewfinder. Tap one to keep it visible; the rest stay covered.
Faces are found on your phone, by your phone. Nothing is uploaded for analysis, because there is nowhere to upload it to.
No account, no sign-up, no email required to use the app. A privacy tool that opens with a registration form has missed the point.
No analytics, no advertising identifiers, no third-party kits reporting on what you do.
Photographs carry GPS coordinates, timestamps and device details. Covering a face means little if the file still says where it was taken, so we remove it.
FaceErase is in development. We are looking for reporters, organisers, photographers and filmmakers to try early builds and tell us where it falls short.