How Property Managers Can Redact Faces From Building Videos

When sharing building footage, give the recipient only the segment and identifying detail needed for the purpose. Keep the original under the property's recording and retention procedures, and create a separate face-treated copy where appropriate.

A residents' notice, maintenance request, and formal incident review may require different versions.

Define what the recipient needs to see

For a broken door, the useful information may be the mechanism failing, not the resident standing nearby. For an incident review, the sequence and identities may need handling by the responsible reviewer.

Do not make those decisions solely as the video editor. Get a concrete instruction about what should remain visible and who may receive the result.

Preserve the source rather than replacing it with a cropped or re-encoded version.

Trim without changing the meaning

Choose the required time range in an approved editor. Keep enough context to understand what happened before and after the relevant moment.

Record the source and selected interval so the derivative can be related back to the original when an authorized person needs it.

Label the output as a sharing copy if it contains redactions.

Treat unrelated faces

Use Select faces in Unseen when only particular residents or visitors should be hidden. Choose Blur all when no face is needed.

Building footage often contains small faces, overhead angles, or low light. Test a short segment and inspect people at entrances and exits.

If automatic detection misses a needed appearance, use an approved manual correction tool or keep the broader sharing copy on hold.

Check identifiers outside the face

Unit numbers, access codes, delivery labels, license plates, and vehicle markings can identify people or disclose building information.

Unseen currently focuses on faces. It does not automatically track plates, text, or arbitrary objects. Crop them or handle them with another approved editor.

A narrow face mask is not enough when the person's destination or unit is the information you are trying to limit.

Deliver the correct file

Check the exported duration, picture, sound if present, and the first and last frames. Make sure the recipient receives the reviewed derivative rather than the original attachment.

Keep a note of the intended audience and purpose. If someone later wants to publish the clip publicly, treat that as a new sharing decision.

For multi-purpose incident material, the workplace review guide explains the same source-versus-copy distinction. The object-anonymization roadmap clarifies which broader treatments are not yet available in Unseen.