Before you upload: a privacy check for faces, addresses, plates and screens

Paste your transcript and a quick shot list; get the timestamps where names, addresses, license plates, other people's faces or private screens show up, and whether to cut, trim or blur each one.

What it does

No bot required. It's easy to share more than you meant to in a video: a house number behind you, a street sign on a walk, a license plate in the driveway, mail on the counter, a full name said out loud, or, for tech and gaming creators, an inbox, a notification or a saved password on screen. YouTube's privacy guidelines say a person can report a video that shares their image or full name without permission, or other personal info like a home address, email address, phone number, ID numbers, or financial info like a card or bank account number. The person has to be uniquely identifiable to others (YouTube says a first name with no other context, or a fleeting image, likely wouldn't qualify), and YouTube weighs public interest, newsworthiness, consent and whether the info is already public. When a complaint comes in, YouTube may give the creator time to remove or edit the private info with the Trim or Blur tools in YouTube Studio, and just making the video private doesn't count. Those tools work on a computer: in YouTube Studio, open Content, pick the video and choose Editor. Face blur finds faces for you to pick; Custom blur lets you draw a rectangle or oval over anything, and Track object makes the blur follow something that moves. Trim & cut removes the start, the end or a middle section without re-uploading, so the URL, views and comments stay. Two cautions from YouTube Help: since June 2025, saved Studio editor changes can't be undone with Revert to original, and on an unedited video with over 100,000 views you may not be able to save changes other than face blur unless your channel is in the YouTube Partner Program. So the easiest time to fix it is before you upload, in your own editor. Since YouTube weighs consent, ask the people on camera, older kids included, before you post them. Paste your transcript and a quick list of what's on camera into any chat AI and it flags the spots with timestamps before anyone else sees them.

Copy-paste prompt

No bot needed: paste this into Grok, ChatGPT, or Claude.

Help me do a privacy check on my video before I upload it. Use YouTube Help's "YouTube Privacy Guidelines," "Blur your videos" and "Trim your videos" as background. You can't see my video, so work only from what I give you.

My channel: [family vlog / gaming / tech / tutorials / faith / cooking / other]. Who's on camera: [me / family / friends / customers / strangers in public]. Where I filmed: [home / yard / car / store / church event / job site / screen recording].
Transcript with timestamps: [paste]
Shot list, in my own words, of what shows on camera and when: [e.g. "0:45 front porch, house number visible"; "3:10 my phone screen with notifications"; "5:20 kids at the park"]
My draft title, description and tags: [paste]

1. Go through the transcript and flag every spot where a full name, home address, school name, workplace, phone number, email address, or account or card number is said out loud.
2. Go through my shot list and flag anything that could identify a person or a place: faces of people who didn't agree to be in it, house numbers, street signs, license plates, mail or package labels, school logos or uniforms, and screens showing email, messages, notifications, contacts, passwords or bank info.
3. Put it all in a table: timestamp, what it is, why it matters, and the fix: cut it, trim it, Face blur, or Custom blur (with Track object if it moves).
4. Mark which fixes to do in my own editor before uploading, and remind me that YouTube Studio editor changes can't be undone after saving.
5. Check my title, description and tags for the same kinds of info.
6. End with a short "ask first" list: anyone on camera I should check with before posting.

Keep it plain and practical. When in doubt, suggest cutting it.

What you need

• Any chat AI (Grok, ChatGPT, Claude)
• Your video's transcript with timestamps
• A quick shot list of what's on camera (typed or voice-to-text)

Sources

• YouTube Help: YouTube Privacy Guidelines
• YouTube Help: Blur your videos (Face blur, Custom blur, Track object)
• YouTube Help: Trim your videos
• Related: Family YouTube channel? Questions to think through before you set "Made for Kids"
• Related: Family media plan you actually revisit
• Related: Who can get into your YouTube channel? A quick permissions cleanup

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