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Show HN: Firefox extension to obfuscate web page text

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Re: Show HN: Firefox extension to obfuscate web page text

#43

Post by dspillett »

Another option for this is to use a “redacted” font like https://github.com/christiannaths/redacted-font

I can't find it ATM, but I used to have a bookmarklet that added one of these as a css style on all elements (or removed its edits when run a second time, to revert the page). Shouldn't be too hard to write if I decide I want it again and still can't find the source of the one used back then. It didn't watch for and update dynamic content changes, but was useful for quick “mock-up” screenshots. The only problem was that the character widths won't quite match (or might be massively different from) the font the page is currently using though no doubt there are things that could be done to improve that. It relied on the font being installed locally, but it wouldn't be beyond the wit of man to make it load a web font or include it as a data block in the bookmarklet.

Re: Show HN: Firefox extension to obfuscate web page text

#44

Post by dontbenebby »

Thanks for making this, it's super cool! I sometimes don't ask for help because the act of blacking out a screenshot is too onerous, I will bookmark this!!

For anyone navigating this issue who doesn't like to or doesn't have the authority to change what extensions are installed, at least on MacOS, CMD-shift-4 will allow you to select a subsection of the screen to take a screenshot.

Here's a collage I made by opening several preview windows of PDFs I have saved while doing OSINT, then hitting CMD-shift-4:

https://i.imgur.com/5tudrhv.png

I've been saving the screenshots with the intent of usin OpenCV to parse the images into text (with the highlighted portions bolded using markdown or something -- I called the art project "saccades"[A])

Also, if you want to change the default screenshot location:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location [tk]

(where [TK] is a file path, minus the brackets, I'm fond of redirecting them to a folder in the home directory so you can make use of the tilde goodness inherent in... nix stuff.)

//[A] "From French saccade, 1. (rare) A sudden jerking movement. 2. A rapid jerky movement of the eye (voluntary or involuntary) from one focus to another." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/saccade#English

/ PS: If anyone knows a better image host than Imgur please let me know, I don't want to just upload it into Wikimedia or whatever, since it's not intended to go adjacent to an article. (I have some animal photos I may upload to Wikimedia under some kind of CC license once I sort them.) */

Re: Show HN: Firefox extension to obfuscate web page text

#45

Post by matt_heimer »

kevincox wrote: post #40
progbits wrote: post #3

Nice idea! Looks like spaces are preserved, and the bar lengths seem to match the world length. Is that the case? I didn't measure it precisely and didn't check the source code. If so you might want to add some random noise. Sometimes it might be possible to reconstruct parts of the text just based on the word lengths.

Yup. It would be better to just replace the text with randomly sized bars of the same number of lines. You can have fun playing with the algorithm to come up with something that looks vaguely english-like. And the blur for images isn't great. It may be better to just use a black box there. Or maybe pick a single colour from the image or something like that.

Agree with the randomizing of word length.

How about also having a choice in obfuscation mode?

  * Government Mode - Solid black bars so it looks like everything has been redacted.
  * UX Placeholder Mode - Lighter bars that are a blend of the font color and background color
  * Lipsum Mode - Replace text with a libsum generator that will truncate to similar size text.

Re: Show HN: Firefox extension to obfuscate web page text

#46

Post by Vinnl »

dspillett wrote: post #43

Another option for this is to use a “redacted” font like https://github.com/christiannaths/redacted-font I can't find it ATM, but I used to have a bookmarklet that added one of these as a css style on all elements (or removed its edits when run a second time, to revert the page). Shouldn't be too hard to write if I decide I want it again and still can't find the source of the one used back then. It didn't watch for a…

Yeah, a bookmarklet should work pretty well too, although indeed needs the font installed locally or requests going out to another sever. The advantage of the extension in that sense is that it includes the font locally and has a keyboard shortcut.

Someone else also mentioned that font, so I logged that here: https://gitlab.com/vincenttunru/obfuscate/-/issues/2

Re: Show HN: Firefox extension to obfuscate web page text

#47

Post by blincoln »

matt_heimer wrote: post #45
kevincox wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. It would be better to just replace the text with randomly sized bars of the same number of lines. You can have fun playing with the algorithm to come up with something that looks vaguely english-like. And the blur for images isn't great. It may be better to just use a black box there. Or maybe pick a single colour from the image or something like that.

Agree with the randomizing of word length. How about also having a choice in obfuscation mode? * Government Mode - Solid black bars so it looks like everything has been redacted. * UX Placeholder Mode - Lighter bars that are a blend of the font color and background color * Lipsum Mode - Replace text with a libsum generator that will truncate to similar size text.

I came to this thread to suggest what you've labelled "Lipsum Mode", because it would preserve the typography style of the page, among other things. I like your other two as well.

Re: Show HN: Firefox extension to obfuscate web page text

#49

Post by Vinnl »

blincoln wrote: post #47
matt_heimer wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with the randomizing of word length. How about also having a choice in obfuscation mode? * Government Mode - Solid black bars so it looks like everything has been redacted. * UX Placeholder Mode - Lighter bars that are a blend of the font color and background color * Lipsum Mode - Replace text with a libsum generator that will truncate to similar size text.

I came to this thread to suggest what you've labelled "Lipsum Mode", because it would preserve the typography style of the page, among other things. I like your other two as well.

Good idea, logged here: https://gitlab.com/vincenttunru/obfuscate/-/issues/5

Re: Show HN: Firefox extension to obfuscate web page text

#50

Post by tyingq »

dspillett wrote: post #43

Another option for this is to use a “redacted” font like https://github.com/christiannaths/redacted-font I can't find it ATM, but I used to have a bookmarklet that added one of these as a css style on all elements (or removed its edits when run a second time, to revert the page). Shouldn't be too hard to write if I decide I want it again and still can't find the source of the one used back then. It didn't watch for a…

Maybe a little dangerous, though, because laypersons might save/share a pdf of the page and think it's fine.
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