Video sharing websites have nowadays become a strong platform to highlight social evils. However, footage featuring kids, political dissidents in oppressive regimes, or victims of sexual assault needs to be handled with care. An annual report from international human rights organization WITNESS titled Cameras Everywherestates, "No video-sharing site or hardware manufacturer currently offers users the option to blur faces or protect identity". This prompted YouTube to take up the gauntlet, resulting in an announcement earlier today on its official blog of a new face-blurring tool. It lets you smudge all faces in an uploaded video, thus ensuring complete anonymity for the subject(s).

To use the effect on an uploaded video, go to the Video Manager section in your YouTube account, then click on the Edit button next to the video you want to blur. In the page that loads, switch to theEnhancements tab at the top, then click on the Additional features button below the video. Finally, click the Apply button under the Blur All Faces option. Once complete, you can delete the original uploaded video. However, note that the technology hasn't been perfected, so make it a point to carefully go through the modified version before publishing it online.
 

 

While this is a welcome step from Google, looking at incidents like the Guwahati molestation case, the next obvious step is to allow selective smudging of faces instead of an all-or-nothing approach. Once the technology evolves to incorporate such a feature, it will become a powerful tool to turn the spotlight on the perpetrators of a crime, while protecting the victim's identity.