Don't accidentally reveal your identity in screenshots and videos!

 Here's how you can hide personal information when sharing content online.

1. Hide search suggestions and bookmarks in the browser

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First and foremost, you need to hide search suggestions and bookmarks from your browser. Have you looked up a local business or hospital recently? If someone sees this information, they can find out where you live. Not to mention any embarrassing content that might appear.

Most major browsers support turning off search suggestions. You should also delete or hide bookmarks before recording your screen. Most browsers allow you to hide the bookmark bar with a simple keyboard shortcut.

2. Turn off taskbar notifications

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If you've turned on taskbar notifications for social media or work-related sites, you may accidentally reveal more information than you want. (The same is true of Steam notifications, since you can't exactly control which games with inappropriate titles your friends choose to play or when.)

You can turn off taskbar notifications on Windows by going to Settings > System > Notifications & actions and turning off Get notifications from apps and other senders . Apps that use their own notification delivery mechanisms, such as Steam and Skype, must be disabled separately.

3. Separate private and public activities

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While turning off notifications and cleaning up your browser will keep you safe, the best method to protect yourself is simply to separate your personal and public activities.

You can do this by creating a separate user account on Windows or macOS and connecting your browser to a separate professional email account. Things like privacy notifications and confusing search suggestions are almost always linked to your operating system account or email account, so you can eliminate most problems right from the source with How not to use them while screen sharing or streaming.

4. Blur sensitive information and avoid blurring

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You may be surprised, but deleting information by blurring it is not safe. Many people also make the mistake of editing text with the semi-transparent pen tool, and as a result, their edits are easily reversed.

There are several methods you can use to edit sensitive information out of your photos, but the most reliable method is to black out that information. You can do this in any app that has a pen tool. Just make sure the tool you use has 100% opacity.

To be clear, you should never attempt to censor information by:

1. Use highlight tool
2. Use digital effects, like blurring

Instead, you can use one or more of the methods below to remove personal information from your photos and videos:

1. Remove location data from photos with an EXIF ​​remover app
2. Use the blur pen tool or insert shapes to cover up personal information on photos
3. Remove exposed elements from websites using a browser extension like uBlock Origin
4. Edit portions of the screen using overlays in applications like OBS

Remember that if you're sharing webcam footage or photos, your surroundings can also reveal personal information. For example, the position of sunlight in a photo or video can indicate what time zone you're in.

If you're planning on using a webcam or sharing photos, make sure to look in the background for anything you don't recognize there. Mirrors, scattered documents, photos, or even just a glimpse of what's outside the window can provide more information than you expected.

5. Select specific window when recording screen

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Last but not least, you should avoid sharing your entire screen whenever possible. When screen sharing, you're often given the option to share a specific window or your entire screen, and the latter option is usually not worth the risk.

Full screen sharing is useful when you need to display multiple apps or want to eliminate audio issues, but the downside is that whatever appears on your screen will be visible.

So, if you forget to close an app or fail to clear all taskbar notifications, sharing a specific app window will ensure that those notifications are not visible to viewers.

Of course, you may not need to use all five methods to maintain your privacy. As long as you make an effort to conceal personal information and maintain professional habits, staying safe online is a simple task.

Marvin Fry

Update 13 August 2024