StartPrivate removes hidden details that files carry (GPS coordinates, camera serial numbers, document authors, tracked changes) and covers what is visible (faces, plates, card numbers) before you send anything. Every tool runs in your browser tab, so the files you choose are not uploaded; heavier helpers such as the face finder download from this site only when you press their button.
How it works
Pick a tool below, choose your files, and save the cleaned copies. The work happens in the page itself: photos are cleaned byte by byte without being re-encoded, videos are cleaned in place without touching picture or sound, Office files are rewritten without their author and comment data, and redaction draws a fresh image with your covers burned in. Nothing you open is sent to this site, which serves static files only. If you want to confirm that rather than take it on trust, the methodology page shows how to watch your browser's network activity while a tool runs.
Redact photos and screenshots
Cover what is visible in a picture. The solid block is the default; pixelate and blur are marked as decorative because they can sometimes be reversed.
- Redact a screenshot: finds email addresses, phone and card numbers and QR codes in a screenshot so you can black them out.
- Redact an image: flatten solid covers over IDs, bills, labels and boarding passes.
- Censor a photo: hide house numbers, screens, mail or tattoos before posting.
- Blur faces: an on-device face finder boxes faces for you to cover.
- Cover kids' faces: share class, team and party photos without other children's faces or names.
- Hide a license plate: box a plate by hand for a sale listing or dashcam still.
- Hide a card number: card numbers spotted with a Luhn check, expiry and code covered by you.
- Blur text: why blurred words can be read back, and how to hide text properly.
- Pixelate an image: a mosaic for backgrounds and logos, with an honest note on its limits.
Remove hidden metadata
See and strip what files record about where, when and by whom they were made.
- Metadata remover: drop photos, videos and Office files together and each is cleaned by type.
- Remove photo metadata: EXIF, GPS, XMP, IPTC and more out of JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC, pixels untouched.
- Remove EXIF data: drop camera, lens, settings and dates while keeping orientation and color.
- EXIF viewer: read every tag in a photo without changing it.
- When was this photo taken?: every date stored in a photo, with time zones, side by side.
- Remove location from a photo: clear the coordinates and keep the date and camera details.
- Remove location on iPhone: the same for iPhone photos, HEIC included.
- Remove location on Android: the same for photos from Android phones.
- HEIC metadata: clean an iPhone HEIC photo and keep it as HEIC.
- Remove video metadata: MP4 and MOV cleaned in place, multi-gigabyte files included, no re-encoding.
- GoPro GPS remover: empty the GPS and sensor tracks GoPro cameras record.
- DJI GPS remover: drone video and its .SRT subtitle file without coordinates or altitude.
- Word metadata: authors, comments, tracked changes and hidden text out of .docx files.
- Excel metadata: authors, comments, saved folder paths and user names out of .xlsx files.
- PowerPoint metadata: authors and comments out of .pptx files, speaker notes flagged.
- Content Credentials viewer: read a file's C2PA signer, tools and edit history offline.
Passwords
Generated in your browser from the operating system's secure random source; nothing is saved or sent.
- Passphrase generator: random words from the EFF list, six by default.
- Diceware: the same list with the five dice rolls for each word, so you can roll your own.
- Password generator: random passwords from 4 to 128 characters with the character sets you choose.
By length: 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 20, 24, 32 and 64 characters, each page with its own entropy and cracking-time figures and where that length fits.
By rule:
- Memorable: three capitalized words and two digits, joined by hyphens.
- Wi-Fi: 20 characters with no look-alike letters, easy to type on a TV remote.
- PIN: six uniformly random digits by default.
- No symbols: letters and digits only, for sites that reject symbols.
- Pronounceable: consonant-vowel syllables you can say out loud.
- Easy to type: lowercase letters and digits in groups of four.
More tools
- File hash checker: SHA-256, SHA-512, SHA-1 or MD5 of any file, compared with a published checksum.
- Encrypt text: lock a note with a password or pack it into a link after the #.
- Password strength checker: a 0 to 4 score on your device, with an optional breach check that is off until you tick it.
Guides
- California DROP: using the state's platform to ask registered data brokers to delete your information.
- Find your mobile advertising ID: where the ad ID lives on iPhone and Android, and how to reset or limit it.
- Google "Results about you": asking Google to remove search results that show your home address or phone number.
What this site is not
There are no accounts and no file storage on any server, and nothing you process is sent anywhere. The site cannot recover a file or a password for you, and it does not offer links that host your files. The details are on the privacy page and in the terms, and every third-party component the tools use is credited on the licenses page.
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