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Show HN: Chrome extension to blur personal data before screen capture

datamask.tech

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Re: Show HN: Chrome extension to blur personal data before screen capture

#2
Maker here. I have built the DataMask Chrome extension out of personal frustration when manually hiding private data in screenshots for my blog articles. I was spending a lot of time opening Chrome Dev tools manipulating website content and then finishing the job with Sketch. I wanted a tool which would let me do this work without leaving the browser and remove the need to use dev tools or design software all together. With this in mind DataMask was born. After several iterations it can now automatically scramble all text on a website, draw blur rectangles and enable basic HTML edit capabilities.

Give DataMask a go and let me know how I can improve it further.

Re: Show HN: Chrome extension to blur personal data before screen capture

#3
post #2

Maker here. I have built the DataMask Chrome extension out of personal frustration when manually hiding private data in screenshots for my blog articles. I was spending a lot of time opening Chrome Dev tools manipulating website content and then finishing the job with Sketch. I wanted a tool which would let me do this work without leaving the browser and remove the need to use dev tools or design software all togethe…

This is a great idea! You might reconsider using blur to obscure the information, as it is trivial to defeat [1] (no ML required!).

[1]: http://dheera.net/projects/blur

Re: Show HN: Chrome extension to blur personal data before screen capture

#4
post #3
post #2

Maker here. I have built the DataMask Chrome extension out of personal frustration when manually hiding private data in screenshots for my blog articles. I was spending a lot of time opening Chrome Dev tools manipulating website content and then finishing the job with Sketch. I wanted a tool which would let me do this work without leaving the browser and remove the need to use dev tools or design software all togethe…

This is a great idea! You might reconsider using blur to obscure the information, as it is trivial to defeat [1] (no ML required!). [1]: http://dheera.net/projects/blur

True, blur on large areas is reversible, even visually user can see the text true and I hope that users will recognise that. That's why I also added scramble option which replaces all text with random characters. Combining scramble for data protection and blur for visual affect is the best combination

Re: Show HN: Chrome extension to blur personal data before screen capture

#6
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great idea! You might reconsider using blur to obscure the information, as it is trivial to defeat [1] (no ML required!). [1]: http://dheera.net/projects/blur

True, blur on large areas is reversible, even visually user can see the text true and I hope that users will recognise that. That's why I also added scramble option which replaces all text with random characters. Combining scramble for data protection and blur for visual affect is the best combination

It would be cool to automatically scramble the text behind the blur. This would give the look without leaving the original data there.

Re: Show HN: Chrome extension to blur personal data before screen capture

#7

Just an FYI but clicking on the link triggers Metamask's [1] Ethereum Phishing Detection, here's a screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/p2m8nil.png [1] https://metamask.io/

Thanks, I will look into that. Not sure why it does not like my landing page :)

Re: Show HN: Chrome extension to blur personal data before screen capture

#8
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, blur on large areas is reversible, even visually user can see the text true and I hope that users will recognise that. That's why I also added scramble option which replaces all text with random characters. Combining scramble for data protection and blur for visual affect is the best combination

It would be cool to automatically scramble the text behind the blur. This would give the look without leaving the original data there.

That's a good idea. I could add new secure/maximum privacy action in the extension UI. Instead of relying on users knowing about the limitations of blur

Re: Show HN: Chrome extension to blur personal data before screen capture

#9
post #7

Just an FYI but clicking on the link triggers Metamask's [1] Ethereum Phishing Detection, here's a screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/p2m8nil.png [1] https://metamask.io/

Thanks, I will look into that. Not sure why it does not like my landing page :)

Probably has something to do with the domain being similar. That is what is says here too: https://metamask.github.io/eth-phishing-detect/

"This domain was blocked for its similarity to metamask.io, a historical phishing target."

It also seems like someone has already filed an issue on their Github (https://github.com/MetaMask/eth-phishing-detect/issues/3762) a month ago.

Re: Show HN: Chrome extension to blur personal data before screen capture

#10
post #3
post #2

Maker here. I have built the DataMask Chrome extension out of personal frustration when manually hiding private data in screenshots for my blog articles. I was spending a lot of time opening Chrome Dev tools manipulating website content and then finishing the job with Sketch. I wanted a tool which would let me do this work without leaving the browser and remove the need to use dev tools or design software all togethe…

This is a great idea! You might reconsider using blur to obscure the information, as it is trivial to defeat [1] (no ML required!). [1]: http://dheera.net/projects/blur

That's an example of bruteforce, but the blur itself can actually be reversed sometimes: http://yuzhikov.com/articles/BlurredImagesRestoration1.htm
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