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> I really hope the blur on the picture (https://citizenlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Hubbard-Ima https://citizenlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Hubbard-I
by tablespoon 5y ago
> I really hope the blur on the picture (https://citizenlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Hubbard-Ima https://citizenlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Hubbard-Ima...) isn't hiding anything actually important because that can almost certainly be de-blurred with the right tooling.
Yeah, the right way to use blurring is to mockup a lookalike for content you want to hide, then blur the mockup.
- Stupulous 5y agoYou don't even need this. I searched "unblur" in Google Play Store, downloaded the first result, tweaked the settings a touch, and I could make out the characters. The whole process took a couple minutes. If the data actually needs to be hidden, this picture should be taken down.
- notyourwork 5y agoIt sounds like you didn’t read the post you are replying to. They indicated a mock copy should be made to avoid techniques reconstructing the data.
- Stupulous 5y agoYeah, I replied to the wrong comment, sorry. I navigated away and skimmed to figure out where I was when I came back.
- deserted 5y agoif you generate a lookalike full of UUIDs, you don't really need to blur except for dramatic effect I guess.
- fabianhjr 5y agoI just go solid opaque bar. Way easier to do and harder to screw up.
- tablespoon 5y ago> I just go solid opaque bar. Way easier to do and harder to screw up. There may be graphic design reasons you don't want to do that. A big black redaction bar isn't much of an illustration.
- johnfn 5y agoAmusingly enough, people have even screwed this up. I recall some government agency trying to censor data with a black bar, but the problem was that the data was in a SVG-like document, so people could just delete the bars from the document and see the apparently-censored text.
- ghostly_s 5y agoThis has happened with PDFs many, many times.
- franga2000 5y agoThe EU has redacted PDFs this way a number of times, but I don't think anything truly sensitive ever leaked.
- tait 5y agoI remember a version of this happening with PDFs
- lelandfe 5y agoYep - Apple wound up adding a “Redact” tool to Preview.app for PDFs, likely in response to all the people who just drew shapes over selectable sensitive text. https://eclecticlight.co/2020/12/11/how-effective-and-safe-is-previews-redaction-tool/ https://eclecticlight.co/2020/12/11/how-effective-and-safe-i...
- rincebrain 5y agoI believe the US government did this at least once, by implementing the black bars in a PDF as a separate object, so the unredacted item was intact in the files they shared. Whoops.