StartPrivate is a collection of browser-based tools for cleaning photos, screenshots, videos and documents before they are shared, plus a few password and file utilities. It has no accounts and no upload servers, and it is written and maintained by StartPrivate Editorial, reachable at hello@startprivate.com.
Why it exists
Files carry more than their content. A phone photo can record the exact spot where it was taken and the serial number of the camera. A Word file can carry its author's name, everyone who commented, and text that was deleted but kept as a tracked change. A screenshot sent as "proof" can show someone else's phone number. A video from an action camera can hold a second-by-second GPS track of the ride.
Most of the time this does not matter. Sometimes it matters a lot, and you find out afterwards. The idea behind the name is simple: start private. Clean the file on your own device first, then share it.
What the tools do
- Redact visible details in photos and screenshots with solid covers, helped by an on-device face finder and a text reader that spots email addresses, phone numbers, card numbers and QR codes.
- Remove metadata from photos (JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC), from MP4 and MOV video including GoPro and DJI footage, and from Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and show what was found before and what is still found after.
- Read what a file records: every EXIF tag, every stored date, and the Content Credentials (C2PA) some cameras and editing apps attach.
- Generate passphrases and passwords, check password strength, compute file checksums and encrypt short notes.
How it is built
Every tool is ordinary web code that runs in your browser. The site itself is a set of static files with no server-side program, no database and no upload endpoint. Large helpers such as the face finder, the text reader and the Content Credentials reader are hosted on this site at fixed versions and only download when you press the button that needs them. The methodology page explains how each tool works and how you can watch your browser's network activity to check that your files stay put. The open-source components the tools rely on are credited, with versions and licenses, on the licenses page.
What StartPrivate is not
- Not a storage or sharing service. It keeps none of your files on a server, so it cannot make share links for them, keep a history or restore something you lost.
- Not an account. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to log into.
- Not a guarantee. Automatic finders miss things, and no tool can remove information that is visible in the picture itself unless you cover it. Look over every result before you send it.
- Not legal or security advice. The pages explain how files and tools work, with sources. They do not tell you what the law requires in your situation.
- Not a way to disguise where content came from. The metadata tools are for protecting the people in and behind a file, such as removing a home location or an author's name, not for passing off someone else's work.
Who writes it
The pages and tools are published under the name StartPrivate Editorial, and every page is signed that way rather than with individual names. Factual statements are checked against the sources listed at the end of each page, and each page shows the date it was last updated.
Contact and corrections
Write to hello@startprivate.com with questions, bug reports or corrections. If a tool missed something in your file, a description of the file type and the device that made it helps far more than the file itself; please do not send personal files. Corrections to facts on a page are welcome and are fixed as quickly as they can be verified.
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