It has been announced by You Tube this week that a custom blur tool for video is now available within their service.
It’s an exciting development that comes about as a direct result of the WITNESS Technology Advocacy programme to Google/YouTube. The news is important because being able to custom blur objects or faces (think: license plates, activists faces) is a key visual privacy consideration and will save lives.
It not only makes it possible for videos of human rights abuses to be safely shared, it also sends a massive message to the world in which millions, billions are sharing visual images, that privacy matters.
Reacting to this development Peter has commented:
Very proud of WITNESS, in collaboration with YouTube, getting the Blur function available around the world.The lives of the many brave activists who post video to show what’s really going on, will now be much safer and the activists will be much harder to trace.A big thank you to everyone at WITNESS working on this and also to YouTube for showing a real concern for those people uploading video and being willing to support their protection.
You can get some more context to this development and why it is important in this WITNESS blog: Why You Tube’s Blurring Tool Matters