The new button allows users to obscure faces within videos when uploading them. The feature will is designed to protect the identity of those who want to remain anonymous especially during anti-government protest.
According to the International Human Rights organisation there isn’t a video sharing site or hardware manufacturer that currently offers the option to blur faces in order protect identities.
"As citizens continue to play a critical role in supplying news and human rights footage from around the world, YouTube is committed to creating even better tools to help them," said Youtube policy associate Amanda Conway.
To use the blur option click on additional features then click the apply button below Blur All Faces. Users can see a preview of what a video will look like with faces blurred before uploading. Once you save the changes to a video a new copy of video is created with blurred faces and users can delete or keep the original video.
"Whether you want to share sensitive protest footage without exposing the faces of the activists involved, or share the winning point in your 8-year-old’s basketball game without broadcasting the children’s faces to the world, our face blurring technology is a first step towards providing visual anonymity for video on YouTube," said Conway.
YouTube, however, pointed out some technical problems as the feature is an emerging technology. There may be difficulty sometimes for certain faces to be detected which will prevent them from being blurred.
Users can always keep their videos private if unsatisfied with the accuracy of blurring.
