{"id":23741,"date":"2020-06-11T15:05:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T15:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/?p=2593389"},"modified":"2020-06-11T15:05:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T15:05:00","slug":"anonymous-camera-is-a-new-app-that-uses-ai-to-quickly-anonymize-photos-and-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/11\/anonymous-camera-is-a-new-app-that-uses-ai-to-quickly-anonymize-photos-and-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"Anonymous Camera is a new app that uses AI to quickly anonymize photos and videos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"233\" height=\"24\" src=\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/4001-logo-290.png\" class=\"webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"display: block; margin-bottom: 5px; clear:both;max-width: 100%;\" link_thumbnail=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-entry-summary p-dek\">But it&rsquo;s far from a silver bullet for privacy<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-entry-summary p-dek\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/MIScTY-l2lnZm_n1hsasAMUZtJI=\/0x0:3800x2400\/1200x800\/filters:focal(1596x896:2204x1504)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/66920874\/anonymous_camera_3_tile_bigger.0.jpg\" width=\"758\" height=\"505\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"4NcWy6\">Our faces have never been more vulnerable. Facial recognition algorithms make it easy to identify individuals&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/onezero.medium.com\/facial-recognition-is-law-enforcements-newest-weapon-against-protestors-c7a9760e46eb\">from a single snap<\/a>&nbsp;&mdash; a fact that&rsquo;s particularly relevant at a time of protest. But with the help of advances in machine learning, it&rsquo;s also easier than ever to anonymize photos and videos, removing information that would otherwise identify people.<\/p>\n<p id=\"pTZi4s\">The latest example of this is a new camera app called Anonymous Camera, that launches&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/anonymous-camera\/id1504102584\">on the iOS App Store<\/a>&nbsp;today. It&rsquo;s the work of London AI startup&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/playground.ai\/\">Playground<\/a>, whose founders built the app with the help of investigative journalists who wanted an easy way to record anonymous footage. Although it&rsquo;s no silver bullet for privacy, Anonymous Camera offers the most comprehensive and easy-to-use features we&rsquo;ve seen in an app of its kind.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-float-right\">\n<aside id=\"0ljSF5\"><q>ANONYMOUS CAMERA BLURS FACES AND BODIES; DISTORTS AUDIO AND STRIPS METADATA<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"y7keus\">Anonymous Camera uses machine learning to identify people in images and videos and then blur, pixelate, or block out entirely faces or whole bodies. Being able to block out feature altogether is important, as some blurring and pixelation methods can be&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/779625\/none-of-your-pixelated-or-blurred-information-will-stay-safe-on-the-internet\/\">reversed<\/a>, and individuals can often be identified not just by their faces but by their clothing, tattoos, and other identifying markers.<\/p>\n<p id=\"N24usB\">The app can also distort voices in videos and strips any metadata that&rsquo;s automatically embedded in files by cameras and phones. That includes the time a photo or video was taken and, depending on your privacy settings, where it was taken. Even if you anonymize individuals in photos, this information can reveal a lot, whether it&rsquo;s shared accidentally online or retrieved later when a device is analyzed.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"e-image\"><span class=\"e-image__inner\"><span class=\"e-image__image \" data-original=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20029447\/anonymous_camera_gif_better.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-dynamic-image  lazy-image lazy-loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/oaPCeWRKVQHNNJ9KAtmDtGrlLKE=\/800x0\/filters:no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20029447\/anonymous_camera_gif_better.gif\" alt=\"\" data-chorus-optimize-field=\"main_image\" data-cid=\"site\/dynamic_size_image-1591873453_4449_65220\" data-cdata=\"{&quot;asset_id&quot;:20029447,&quot;ratio&quot;:&quot;*&quot;}\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/figure>\n<p id=\"Tiuycy\">Perhaps most importantly, Anonymous Camera processes content in real time on users&rsquo; devices, something that wasn&rsquo;t possible before recent advances in AI. This means videos or photos only exist in their original state for a brief time as the app amends them. So, if someone&rsquo;s phone is confiscated at a later date, no uncensored files will be available.<\/p>\n<p id=\"0HcEQz\">We&rsquo;ve been testing Anonymous Camera in London, including at a recent Black Lives Matter protest. It&rsquo;s definitely not a perfect tool for anonymizing crowd shots in protests (something its creators say it wasn&rsquo;t originally intended for) but it does make anonymizing close-up photos and videos of individuals and small groups extremely simple.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"e-image\"><span class=\"e-image__inner\"><span class=\"e-image__image \" data-original=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png\"><picture class=\"c-picture\" data-cid=\"site\/picture_element-1591873453_1511_65221\" data-cdata=\"{&quot;asset_id&quot;:20023969,&quot;ratio&quot;:&quot;*&quot;}\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/-KkcLMy2e61Bf9sjjH4rJTut1Ws=\/0x0:3840x2160\/320x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 320w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/JiHuF4Ywq257REamHch2gYnzMzI=\/0x0:3840x2160\/520x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 520w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/SlTEnyc4apVk8oiFNyt4OQMNvDo=\/0x0:3840x2160\/720x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 720w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/yONGvPlDNPdFyoV6QLNqk1ObFmQ=\/0x0:3840x2160\/920x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 920w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/kli8o9aQi2hMgxSFDY5oJu8D0NI=\/0x0:3840x2160\/1120x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 1120w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/Drj504Um0AqiUcs35Bvjyevl2Y8=\/0x0:3840x2160\/1320x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 1320w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/W0iR_DlOqfBHCuAp0J2OEq72ndo=\/0x0:3840x2160\/1520x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 1520w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/YaYcXkzfAUGO2m_8tudPrSLp4fI=\/0x0:3840x2160\/1720x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 1720w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/4_4dQNi0z9Dl4l0-S-1srg843yY=\/0x0:3840x2160\/1920x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 1920w\" type=\"image\/webp\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/jojaiBp0PfK83OpeHus2WTCB2Oo=\/0x0:3840x2160\/1200x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/N-bYCSf9-1a2hNWqVa9qycJKdnw=\/0x0:3840x2160\/320x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 320w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/6adGbcSw37pNfhuOqu-MBuy0W60=\/0x0:3840x2160\/520x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 520w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/Hen7Se3TWzNLyc5uE313nnTLomQ=\/0x0:3840x2160\/720x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 720w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/pBSIX81TDRyvBKTsuzSG_nadvoo=\/0x0:3840x2160\/920x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 920w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/8PbO0yj3jQAVLEJVOlW_vg2toHs=\/0x0:3840x2160\/1120x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 1120w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/NTpk1rOuuvxgghvtohslBYgusMA=\/0x0:3840x2160\/1320x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 1320w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/2TyZmOFecxqr5denmXeFvECZ5dE=\/0x0:3840x2160\/1520x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 1520w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/7nqBnBjYxJD8gkztdQtDz3EH1PM=\/0x0:3840x2160\/1720x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 1720w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/7ARhv2Q1r0wKU930dX8pml_cMnM=\/0x0:3840x2160\/1920x0\/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023969\/Anonymous_Camera_Privacy_Policy_3.png 1920w\" alt=\"\" data-upload-width=\"3840\" \/><\/picture><\/span><\/span><figcaption><em>The app includes information about how it processes data, and the limits of its anonymity features.&nbsp;<\/em><\/figcaption><span class=\"e-image__meta\"><cite>Screenshots: Playground<\/cite><\/span><\/figure>\n<p id=\"JWaV0Z\">Gabriel Mitchell and Aaron Abentheuer, co-founders of Playground, told&nbsp;<em>The Verge<\/em>&nbsp;they were inspired to create Anonymous Camera after reading reports of journalists in the United Arab Emirates who were writing about the persecution of LGBT groups.<\/p>\n<p id=\"oRNZTf\">&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very important that whenever you take a photo of someone [in the UAE] you have to be very careful to anonymize that immediately,&rdquo; said Abentheuer. &ldquo;People capture footage and then anonymize it through Photoshop, but in the meantime the government might have confiscated their camera, and with that the compromising material.&rdquo; Anonymous Camera removes the need for this entire post-production process.<\/p>\n<p id=\"sV4AXm\">Ah early user of the app who testified to its usefulness is Paul Radu, an investigative journalist who covers organized crime and corruption with the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.occrp.org\/en\">OCCRP<\/a>, which helped publish the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.occrp.org\/en\/panamapapers\/\">Panama Papers<\/a>. Radu told&nbsp;<em>The Verge<\/em>&nbsp;he&rsquo;s already used Anonymous Camera in his reporting, using it to record videos with interview subjects anonymously.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-float-right\">\n<aside id=\"wQfjKc\"><q>&ldquo;THE APP BUILDS AN ALMOST INSTANT LAYER OF TRUST AND SAFETY THAT IS VERY IMPORTANT.&rdquo;<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"bIJMUG\">&ldquo;The app builds an almost instant layer of trust and safety that is very important,&rdquo; Radu told<em>&nbsp;The Verge<\/em>. He said he showed interviewees how the app obscured their features in real-time, which reassured them no uncensored video was being captured. This built &ldquo;an almost instant layer of trust and safety,&rdquo; says Radu. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to explain to the interviewee and easy to show.&rdquo; A splitscreen feature also lets interviewers show their face while recording video.<\/p>\n<div class=\"m-ad m-ad__dynamic_ad_unit m-ad__desktop_article_body dfp_ad-wrapper--is-filled\" data-concert-ads-name=\"desktop_article_body\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-desktop_article_body\" class=\"dynamic-js-slot dfp_ad--rendered dfp_ad--is-filled .dfp_ad--held-area\" data-google-query-id=\"CL3Og57Q-ekCFauoUQod-zsCYQ\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/172968584\/verge_5__container__\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"HXK3Ta\">One journalist who offered Playground advice on building the app is Paul Cheung, a director at the journalism nonprofit the Knight Foundation. Cheung told&nbsp;<em>The Verge&nbsp;<\/em>over email that he didn&rsquo;t expect AC to be &ldquo;the next Instagram,&rdquo; but thought it could be useful for a lot of people, including journalists, activists, and citizens documenting certain subjects. &ldquo;The tool can be used for sensitive stories involving victims of sexual abuse or violence, undocumented immigrants or protesters,&rdquo; said Cheung.<\/p>\n<p id=\"15WE4y\">But how useful is the app for protests? When Mitchell and Abentheuer began working on the app last year, the Hong Kong democracy protests had begun in earnest, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/nov\/13\/portraits-of-hong-kongs-masked-protesters-in-pictures\">masked protesting<\/a>&nbsp;was becoming the norm. This inspired their work, and they managed to get a number of protesters to test the app. They found it had its uses, but also its limitations.<\/p>\n<aside id=\"nVDeBA\">\n<div class=\"c-read-more\">\n<p class=\"c-read-more__intro\">RELATED<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/21281897\/how-to-hide-faces-scrub-metadata-photograph-video-protest\" data-analytics-link=\"readmore\">How to hide faces and scrub metadata when you photograph a protest<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p id=\"tYSb5J\">&ldquo;If you&rsquo;re taking a photo of yourself or capturing other peoples&rsquo; identities you don&rsquo;t want to compromise anyone,&rdquo; says Mitchel, and the certainly app helps with that. &ldquo;But we learned pretty quickly that it is computationally quite hard to anonymize an entire protest in one shot.&rdquo; Simply put, when there are too many faces in frame, your phone can&rsquo;t identify them all. The pair say they&rsquo;re working on adding this functionality &ldquo;in the long term.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p id=\"jD85GU\">Our own tests showed the same thing. If there were more than, say, eight people in frame at more than a distance of a few meters from the camera, the anonymity filters just didn&rsquo;t kick in. In the still frame below, taken from a video at a Black Lives Matter protest in London, you can see the extent of these problems. The yellow blocking is created by the app, and the black blocking by&nbsp;<em>The Verge<\/em>. The app just doesn&rsquo;t anonymize people far away from the camera and for those up close it glitches in and out of focus, sometimes revealing faces.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"e-image\"><span class=\"e-image__inner\"><span class=\"e-image__image \" data-original=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg\"><picture class=\"c-picture\" data-cid=\"site\/picture_element-1591873453_8409_65222\" data-cdata=\"{&quot;asset_id&quot;:20023965,&quot;ratio&quot;:&quot;*&quot;}\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/IVmWW-ptb5DNxSWHkSQVueVjB2Q=\/0x0:1563x832\/320x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 320w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/lA-lYE3KeAn-XpJ45B3jgZidaiU=\/0x0:1563x832\/520x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 520w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/ckhYUVkFUVFjWNGxsC3h7ASc-7E=\/0x0:1563x832\/720x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 720w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/a5TMMlVma-kDWfxDa0jIwOgvPGI=\/0x0:1563x832\/920x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 920w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/etpSBdfiuK4OJ3y0p7-Y1GSuwLQ=\/0x0:1563x832\/1120x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 1120w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/LYYSy_Bkor--COer5KC8IP8GZIs=\/0x0:1563x832\/1320x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 1320w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/WesHnZw0GnfLwazEnlqqyOeiggM=\/0x0:1563x832\/1520x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 1520w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/3VL4amQ63ShNZBfwTsX7mXqKGFM=\/0x0:1563x832\/1720x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 1720w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/3CHvmMa-m33KlzpgbnruTuXjfDY=\/0x0:1563x832\/1920x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 1920w\" type=\"image\/webp\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/0NF1aB3nkvquqgt8JaIqFC0avDo=\/0x0:1563x832\/1200x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/t8RZ4VRsT4VzNgowD6uAfmdI4SU=\/0x0:1563x832\/320x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 320w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/NNE2iskp-dtKDtMFEPBC29Z9jVI=\/0x0:1563x832\/520x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 520w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/edfXh9WArVGjG_BF8prckqdIjyg=\/0x0:1563x832\/720x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 720w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/k5EeaF6rrpyT9Ti8uLCxexIuIF0=\/0x0:1563x832\/920x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 920w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/gdF6Li7wYXGKe5myOGhJPAJMdJA=\/0x0:1563x832\/1120x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 1120w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/Tw94cpGd3luyoEyHrfJrqa49rOw=\/0x0:1563x832\/1320x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 1320w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/YJxbIOcxOcb4O6EBrUiotSodQYs=\/0x0:1563x832\/1520x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 1520w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/Cm2BVpguqo53j4465wrVhvdnUKs=\/0x0:1563x832\/1720x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 1720w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/bydVYju7eVYoomgLrG5Wcwere78=\/0x0:1563x832\/1920x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1563x832):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/20023965\/Screen_Shot_2020_06_08_at_11.13.16_AM_scrubbed.jpg 1920w\" alt=\"\" data-upload-width=\"1563\" \/><\/picture><\/span><\/span><figcaption><em>Anonymous Camera isn&rsquo;t capable of anonymizing large crowds at once.&nbsp;<\/em><\/figcaption><span class=\"e-image__meta\"><cite>Image: The Verge<\/cite><\/span><\/figure>\n<p id=\"8lzGD4\">Still, though, the app&rsquo;s has advantages over currently available options for anonymizing photos. There are online tools that can be used to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/everestpipkin.github.io\/image-scrubber\/\">scrub information from photos<\/a>, but they&rsquo;re slow and can be tricky to use from mobile browsers. You can also use built in photo editing tools to manually blur or cover faces, but this takes more time and effort. Encrypted messaging app Signal recently added a tool to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2020\/6\/4\/21280112\/signal-face-blurring-tool-ios-android-update\">blur faces in photos<\/a>, but this doesn&rsquo;t match all of AC&rsquo;s features, like blocking out faces altogether and stripping metadata.<\/p>\n<aside id=\"Ewh7nl\">\n<div class=\"c-read-more\">\n<p class=\"c-read-more__intro\">RELATED<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/21281897\/how-to-hide-faces-scrub-metadata-photograph-video-protest\" data-analytics-link=\"readmore\">How to hide faces and scrub metadata when you photograph a protest<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p id=\"FqDX4U\">Anonymous Camera does offer a quicker way to anonymize videos and images, but if you&rsquo;re interested in obscuring your identity this is only&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/21276979\/phone-protest-demonstration-activism-digital-how-to-security-privacy\">part of the picture<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"tzfiiw\">There&rsquo;s a whole range of information that can be used to identify individuals at protests, especially if their phone is confiscated. And even if journalists and activists use tools like this to anonymize photos, that doesn&rsquo;t mean law enforcement will. In the UK, for example, police deploy&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Forward_intelligence_team#:~:text=Forward%20Intelligence%20Teams%20(FITs)%20are,overt%20surveillance%20of%20the%20public.\">dedicated photographers<\/a>&nbsp;at protests to capture images of the crowd and create &ldquo;spotter sheets&rdquo; to identify frequent protesters. Even if you control how you take photos and videos, you can&rsquo;t control how other people do.<\/p>\n<p id=\"5oQJWg\">Anonymous Camera is free to download on iOS today, but a paid upgrade (for $1.99) is required to unlock the ability to record video without watermarks. Playground says that all proceeds from the upgrade from the first month of sale will be donated to Minnesota-based nonprofit Black Visions Collective and the not-for-profit media collective Unicorn Riot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tags\">\n<div><strong>See Campaign: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/onezero.medium.com\/facial-recognition-is-law-enforcements-newest-weapon-against-protestors-c7a9760e46eb\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/onezero.medium.com\/facial-recognition-is-law-enforcements-newest-weapon-against-protestors-c7a9760e46eb<\/a><br \/><b>Contact Information:<\/b><br \/> James Vincent<\/p>\n<p><b>Tags:<\/b><br \/><a href=\"\"><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/category\/news-category\/wire\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Wire<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/category\/global-regions\/united-states\/\" rel=\"category tag\">United States<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/category\/language\/english\/\" rel=\"category tag\">English<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" alt=\"image\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" class=\"cwdfimg\" \/><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Contact Information:<\/h3>\n<p> James Vincent<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"233\" height=\"24\" src=\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/4001-logo-290.png\" alt=\"\">But it&rsquo;s far from a silver bullet for privacy Our faces have never been more vulnerable. Facial recognition algorithms make it easy to identify individuals&nbsp;from a single snap&nbsp;&mdash; a fact that&rsquo;s particularly relevant at a time of protest. But with the help of advances in machine learning, it&rsquo;s also easier than ever to anonymize photos &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/2020\/06\/11\/anonymous-camera-is-a-new-app-that-uses-ai-to-quickly-anonymize-photos-and-videos\/\">Continue reading <span>Anonymous Camera is a new app that uses AI to quickly anonymize photos and videos<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/11\/anonymous-camera-is-a-new-app-that-uses-ai-to-quickly-anonymize-photos-and-videos\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,22,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-united-states","category-wire"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Anonymous Camera is a new app that uses AI to quickly anonymize photos and videos - Business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/11\/anonymous-camera-is-a-new-app-that-uses-ai-to-quickly-anonymize-photos-and-videos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anonymous Camera is a new app that uses AI to quickly anonymize photos and videos - Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"But it&rsquo;s far from a silver bullet for privacy Our faces have never been more vulnerable. Facial recognition algorithms make it easy to identify individuals&nbsp;from a single snap&nbsp;&mdash; a fact that&rsquo;s particularly relevant at a time of protest. But with the help of advances in machine learning, it&rsquo;s also easier than ever to anonymize photos &hellip; Continue reading Anonymous Camera is a new app that uses AI to quickly anonymize photos and videos Continue Reading &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/11\/anonymous-camera-is-a-new-app-that-uses-ai-to-quickly-anonymize-photos-and-videos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-11T15:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/4001-logo-290.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bilal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bilal\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/11\/anonymous-camera-is-a-new-app-that-uses-ai-to-quickly-anonymize-photos-and-videos\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/11\/anonymous-camera-is-a-new-app-that-uses-ai-to-quickly-anonymize-photos-and-videos\/\",\"name\":\"Anonymous Camera is a new app that uses AI to quickly anonymize photos and videos - 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Business","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/11\/anonymous-camera-is-a-new-app-that-uses-ai-to-quickly-anonymize-photos-and-videos\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anonymous Camera is a new app that uses AI to quickly anonymize photos and videos - Business","og_description":"But it&rsquo;s far from a silver bullet for privacy Our faces have never been more vulnerable. Facial recognition algorithms make it easy to identify individuals&nbsp;from a single snap&nbsp;&mdash; a fact that&rsquo;s particularly relevant at a time of protest. But with the help of advances in machine learning, it&rsquo;s also easier than ever to anonymize photos &hellip; Continue reading Anonymous Camera is a new app that uses AI to quickly anonymize photos and videos Continue Reading &rarr;","og_url":"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/11\/anonymous-camera-is-a-new-app-that-uses-ai-to-quickly-anonymize-photos-and-videos\/","og_site_name":"Business","article_published_time":"2020-06-11T15:05:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/4001-logo-290.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Bilal","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bilal","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/11\/anonymous-camera-is-a-new-app-that-uses-ai-to-quickly-anonymize-photos-and-videos\/","url":"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/11\/anonymous-camera-is-a-new-app-that-uses-ai-to-quickly-anonymize-photos-and-videos\/","name":"Anonymous Camera is a new app that uses AI to quickly anonymize photos and videos - 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