How to hide personal information in photos before sharing

Ever take a quick picture of a receipt, document or computer screen to send to someone? Maybe you’re sharing a purchase confirmation, asking a friend for help or showing someone an error message.

Before you hit Send, take another look.

That innocent-looking photo could reveal your home address, phone number, account number, email address or other personal information you never intended to share.

The good news is that you can hide personal information in photos using the built-in editing tools on your iPhone, Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel.

You don’t need to be a photo-editing expert, and in many cases, you don’t need to download another app.

Here’s how to protect your privacy before sharing a picture.

How to remove personal information from photos on iPhone

Your iPhone’s built-in Photos app lets you crop pictures and remove information that doesn’t need to be included.

For example, if you’re sending someone a picture of a receipt, you may only need to show the item and price, not your address or other details.

Option 1: Crop out sensitive information

1. Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
2. Find the photo or screenshot you want to share.
3. Tap Edit.
4. Tap the Crop button.
5. Drag the corners or edges of the cropping frame to exclude personal information.
6. Make sure the information you want to hide is completely outside the selected area.
7. Tap Done.
8. Review the edited photo before sharing it.

Quick tip: If you want to keep the original photo unchanged, duplicate it first. Open the photo, tap the three-dot menu and select Duplicate. Then edit and share the duplicate.

Option 2: Cover information using Markup

If the private information is in the middle of the picture and can’t easily be cropped out, your iPhone also has a tool called Markup.

1. Open the photo in Photos.
2. Tap Edit.
3. Tap the Markup icon, which looks like a pen tip.
4. Tap the Add (+) button.
5. Select Add Shape, then choose a rectangle.
6. Drag and resize the rectangle to completely cover the information you want to hide.
7. Select a solid fill color and set the opacity to 100% so nothing underneath is visible.
8. Tap Done to save your changes.
9. Review the edited photo before sharing it.

Important: Avoid using a translucent highlighter or lightly drawing over sensitive information. The text underneath may still be readable.

For highly sensitive details, cropping or using a dedicated redaction tool is safer than relying on a basic drawing overlay.

One more thing to check: If you’re sharing an edited photo through AirDrop, make sure All Photos Data is turned off in the sharing options. Turning it on can send the original file along with its editing history and metadata. That means someone receiving the photo could potentially recover details you intended to hide.

How to remove personal information from photos on Samsung Galaxy

Samsung Galaxy phones include photo-editing tools in the built-in Gallery app.

You can use them to crop a picture or cover details before sharing it.

Option 1: Crop the photo using Samsung Gallery

1. Open the Gallery app.
2. Select the photo or screenshot you want to share.
3. Tap the Edit button, usually represented by a pencil.
4. Select the Crop tool, if it isn’t already active.
5. Drag the edges of the photo inward to remove sensitive information.
6. Check that the address, account number or other private details are outside the cropped area.
7. Tap Save or Save as copy, depending on your phone’s options.

Bonus tip: Use Save as copy when available so you can preserve the original photo.

Option 2: Cover information using Samsung’s drawing tools

Samsung Gallery also offers drawing and decoration features on supported devices.

1. Open the photo in Gallery.
2. Tap Edit.
3. Tap Decorations, represented by a smiley-face icon.
4. Select Draw and choose a solid color with a thick pen to cover the information completely.
5. Use your finger to cover the sensitive text, making sure no letters or numbers remain visible.
6. Save the edited photo, preferably as a copy.
7. Open the saved photo and check it before sharing.

Important: A brush stroke or sticker may not provide reliable redaction. For account numbers, passwords or financial information, crop the details out whenever possible.

How to remove personal information from photos on Google Pixel

Google Pixel phones use Google Photos for viewing and editing pictures.

Google Photos includes cropping tools that can help you remove information you don’t want to share.

Google has also introduced an updated Markup tool with a Redact feature designed to conceal sensitive details before you share a picture.

Option 1: Crop the photo in Google Photos

1. Open Google Photos on your Pixel.
2. Select the photo or screenshot you want to edit.
3. Tap Edit.
4. Select Crop.
5. Drag the corners or edges to remove the sensitive information.
6. Make sure the details you want to hide are outside the selected area.
7. Tap the available confirmation option.
8. Select Save copy, if offered.

Your edited photo can now be shared without the cropped-out portion appearing in the visible picture.

Quick tip: Cropping works especially well for screenshots that contain unnecessary information at the top or bottom, such as account details, notification previews or browser tabs.

Option 2: Use Google’s Redact tool to hide sensitive information

On supported versions of Google Photos, the Redact feature is designed to obscure private details before sharing a picture.

1. Open Google Photos on your Pixel.
2. Select the photo you want to edit.
3. Tap Edit.
4. Select Markup. On some versions, you may need to tap Tools, then Markup.
5. Tap Redact, if available.
6. Drag your finger over the information you want to hide.
7. Make sure the sensitive information is completely covered.
8. Tap Done.
9. Select Save as copy to keep the original unchanged.
10. Open the saved copy and check it before sharing.

Important: The Redact feature is intended to prevent recipients from simply undoing the redaction to reveal the original pixels in the shared image. However, you may still have the unedited original on your device. Keep that original private, and avoid sharing an original file or editing history alongside the redacted copy.

Quick tip: Availability of the updated Markup tools may vary by device and app version. If you don’t see Redact, check for a Google Photos update. Until the feature is available, cropping remains the safer option for highly sensitive information.

Five things to check before sharing a photo

Before sending a photo of a document, receipt or computer screen, look carefully for information you might have overlooked.

• Home addresses: Shipping labels, bills and receipts may reveal where you live.
• Account numbers: Bank statements, payment confirmations and financial documents may include numbers that should remain private.
• Phone numbers and email addresses: These can appear in receipts, forms and account pages.
• Passwords and verification codes: Never share photos that reveal login credentials, recovery codes or one-time security codes.
• Background details: A computer screen, another document on your desk or a notification appearing in the picture could reveal additional personal information.

Quick tip: Zoom in on the photo before sharing it. Details that look too small to read on your phone may become perfectly visible when someone enlarges the picture.

Don’t forget about photo location information

There’s another privacy detail that’s easy to overlook: location metadata.

Some photos contain information about where they were taken. This may include GPS coordinates, depending on your camera settings.

Even if your home address isn’t visible in the picture, location information could reveal where the photo was captured.

On iPhone

Before sharing a photo from Apple Photos:

1. Open Photos and select the picture.
2. Tap Share.
3. Tap Options near the top of the sharing screen, if available.
4. Turn off Location.
5. Tap Done or close the options screen.
6. Continue sharing the photo.

Quick tip: You can also remove a photo’s location information directly in Photos.

1. Open Photos and select the picture.
2. Tap the three-dot menu.
3. Select Adjust Location, if available.
4. Choose No Location.

Important: If you’re using AirDrop, also make sure All Photos Data is turned off. This setting can include the original photo, editing history and metadata when transferring files.

On Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel

The way location information is shared depends on the app and sharing method.

In Google Photos, location details and sharing behavior can vary depending on whether the location was recorded by the camera, added manually or inferred by Google Photos.

Google Photos offers controls for whether location details are included in shared albums and conversations. Review those settings before sharing.

To check location sharing in a Google Photos shared album:

1. Open Google Photos.
2. Tap Collections, then Albums.
3. Select the shared album.
4. Open the album’s sharing options.
5. Turn Share photo locations off if you don’t want others to see where the pictures were taken.
6. Tap Done, if prompted.

Keep in mind: These Google Photos settings don’t necessarily apply when you send the original file through email or another app. The original photo may still contain GPS information.

If you’re concerned about exposing location information, consider sharing a new screenshot of the appropriately cropped photo rather than the original file. A new screenshot generally won’t carry over the original photo’s GPS metadata, although it may contain other metadata of its own.

Important: Some messaging and social media services automatically remove location metadata, while others may preserve it. Don’t assume every sharing method handles it the same way.

Why blurring or drawing over text isn’t always enough

You might think that adding a few black lines or blurring part of a photo is all it takes to hide private information.

Unfortunately, not every editing method provides the same protection.

A translucent marker may leave the original text visible. Weak blurring can sometimes leave enough visual information for someone to infer what’s underneath.

And some image formats or editing workflows may preserve original information, even when the edited picture looks different on your screen.

Google’s dedicated Redact tool is designed to offer stronger protection than ordinary drawing or blurring tools by incorporating the redaction into the shared image. However, not every phone or editing app offers the same protection.

For that reason, the safest approach is to remove sensitive details from the picture entirely whenever possible.

If you must share a document containing highly sensitive information, use a dedicated redaction tool that permanently removes the underlying content.

Important things to know before sharing edited photos

A few extra precautions can help protect your information.

• Share an edited copy: Keep your original photo private and send only the version you’ve checked.
• Don’t rely on appearance alone: Make sure private information can’t be seen by zooming in or adjusting the picture.
• Be careful with shared albums and cloud links: People with access may be able to view other photos or information depending on your sharing settings.
• Check the background: Look for mail, computer screens, documents or other details you didn’t intend to include.
• Avoid sharing unnecessary information: If someone only needs to see a purchase price, don’t send an entire receipt containing your personal details.
• Check sharing settings: On iPhone, leave All Photos Data turned off when sharing sensitive edits through AirDrop. On Android, review location-sharing options before sending photos.

For especially sensitive documents, consider whether you need to send a photo at all. Sometimes typing the specific information someone needs is a safer option.

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