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It's easier than ever to de-censor videos

(www.jeffgeerling.com)
382 points DamonHD | 2 comments | 15 Apr 25 17:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.433s | source
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AdmiralAsshat ◴[15 Apr 25 19:33 UTC] No.43697419[source]▶
My Windows-98 approved method for redacting a screenshot:

1) Open screenshot in MS-Paint (can you even install MS-Paint anymore? Or is it Paint3D now?)

2) Select Color 1: Black

3) Select Color 2: Black

4) Use rectangular selection tool to select piece of text I want to censor.

5) Click the DEL key. The rectangle should now be solid black.

6) Save the screenshot.

As far as I know, AI hasn't figured out a way to de-censor solid black yet.

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lynndotpy ◴[15 Apr 25 20:28 UTC] No.43697983[source]▶
Solid color would convey far less information, but it would still convey a minimum length of the secret text. If you can assume the font rendering parameters, this helps a ton.

As a simple scenario with monospace font rendering, say you know someone is censoring a Windows password that is (at most) 16 characters long. This significantly narrows the search space!

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1. graypegg ◴[15 Apr 25 20:38 UTC] No.43698096[source]▶
That sort of makes me wonder if the best form of censoring would be solid black shape, THEN passing it through some diffusion image generation step to infill the black square. It will be obvious that it's fake, but it'll make determining the "edges" of the censored area a lot harder. (Might also be a bit less distracting than a big black shape, for your actual non-advisarial viewers!)
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2. lynndotpy ◴[16 Apr 25 14:44 UTC] No.43706226[source]▶
I think the edges would still be evident, and this would just waste time and energy. I think a black square is just fine, so long as you can leak some information on the length of the secret. I would make it larger than it needs to be.