Draw a box over each detail the recipient does not need, such as your passport number, license number or address, and the tool on this page burns it into the copy so it cannot be undone. The blur is painted from the paper around the box, so nothing under it can be recovered, and nothing is uploaded.
How to redact a copy of your ID
- Choose a photo, scan or PDF of your document. If it is crooked or sideways, use Crop and Rotate above the preview.
- Blur is already on: drag across each detail to hide, and a blurred box covers it. Draw as many as you need, anywhere on either side, and remove one with the × at its corner.
- Choose Download: the copy lands in your downloads (Files > Downloads on an iPhone). The boxes are part of the image now, with no layer underneath to lift, and the location data your camera saved is gone too.
What to hide on each document
Hide only what the recipient does not need, and ask when you are not sure: a copy with a field they need covered can be refused. When the law asks for a complete copy, as for a right to rent check in England or a right to work check in the UK, the landlord or employer copies your original themselves, and nothing on it is covered.
- Passport: the passport number and, where there is one, the personal number. Leave the name, photo, nationality and expiry date, which are usually what is checked. The two lines of code at the bottom of the page repeat the passport number and your date of birth, so cover them too when the number goes.
- Driver's license: the license number and your address, unless the recipient has to record them. In Australia, the OAIC says a real estate agent who copies a document carrying a government identifier, such as a driver's license or Medicare number, must generally blank that number out.
- ID card or residence permit: the card number, and the address where one is printed.
- NRIC (Singapore): PDPC guidelines let organizations collect an NRIC number or a copy of the NRIC only when the law requires it or when they must verify your identity to a high degree of fidelity. Anyone else has no use for the number: cover it, with your address.
- Aadhaar (India): UIDAI's masked Aadhaar replaces the first eight digits of the number with "xxxx-xxxx" and leaves the last four. On a photo of the card, cover the same eight digits. That keeps the full number off the copy you hand over, though it does not turn the photo into UIDAI's own masked Aadhaar where that is what is asked for.
- Social Security number (US): the FTC suggests asking whether the last four digits would do. The same question works for any number on a copy.
Why the blur is not a real blur
An ordinary blur or pixelation keeps a trace of what was underneath, and printed numbers in a known typeface leave few possibilities to try. Researchers have trained software to recognize faces and handwritten digits through both, so a blurred number is not a hidden number. The Blur in this tool takes none of the pixels inside the box: it repaints the box from the paper just outside it, with a little grain, so it looks like a blur and holds nothing. It is burned into the copy you save.
Common questions
Can a blurred ID number be recovered?
A real blur or pixelation can sometimes be reversed, because it keeps a trace of the characters underneath and a document's typeface is known. The Blur in this tool is painted from the paper around the box, so there is nothing underneath to recover.
Should I redact my passport number on a copy?
Not when the recipient has to record it, as a hotel or a bank may be required to. When they only need to see who you are, cover it, along with the two lines of code at the bottom of the page that repeat it.
Is covering the number myself the same as a masked Aadhaar?
Not quite. A masked Aadhaar comes from UIDAI with the first eight digits replaced by xxxx-xxxx. Covering the same digits on a photo of your card keeps the full number off that copy, but where a masked Aadhaar from UIDAI is asked for, give that instead.
Can the redaction be undone?
No. The box is painted into the pixels of the copy you save, so there is no layer to remove and no hidden text in a PDF. The file you chose is never changed, so keep it somewhere safe if you need the full document again.
Can I redact a PDF of my ID?
Yes. Choose the PDF and draw the boxes over what to hide. The PDF the tool gives back holds an image of each page, so its text can no longer be selected, which is also why nothing covered can be copied out of it.
Is my document uploaded to redact it?
No. Redaction happens in your browser, on your device. Once the page has loaded, it works with Wi-Fi and mobile data turned off.
