According to reports, more than 322 million individuals in the United States were affected by data exposures. These lapses can be a result of poorly protected data or not redacting sensitive information from video files.
Considering the privacy concerns and compliance requirements, it is increasingly becoming a necessity for law enforcement agencies, government organizations, and even commercial enterprises across the world to consider the best redaction software to obscure sensitive information from their video and other files.
To help in the process, several video redaction software have emerged on the market today. With so many to choose from, it can be difficult to pick the one that is ideally the best suited to what you are looking for – a redaction tool that provides a range of features and accurate results, is easy to use, and may also be automated.
Fortunately, you are at the right place. This blog will compare seven redaction tools available today and the features that we think are necessary. We have compiled this list of the best video redaction software based on our understanding of the market and our decade of experience in this domain.
What Is a Video Redaction Software?
Redaction is the process of hiding or concealing private, confidential, and vulnerable information from the viewing and accessibility of the public or individuals for whom it is not intended. In videos, this may be faces and people, their social security numbers, date of birth, identity card and financial information, vehicle license plate numbers, and similar information.
In short, video redaction is a technique that allows for critical information, such as PII (Personally Identifiable Information), to be hidden from the public eye.
Video redaction software is a simple and easy-to-use tool that allows a layman user to select objects of interest and redact them in a single click.
Unlike video editing tools such as Adobe After Effects, where you need to draw a box around the subject of interest manually, video redaction software will use AI to ease the process for you.
The software usually works by using AI to track the subject of interest (such as a running person) and placing a layer mask over the video stream, covering the redacted elements within it. This cover can be a box selection, within which the elements may be blurred, pixelated, or filled with opaque colors.
7 Big Names in Video Redaction Today
Here is a list of the best video redaction software, and we have compared them feature-by-feature to help you make an informed decision.
VIDIZMO’s Redaction Tool
VIDIZMO has a constantly improving proprietary redaction tool called Redactor.ai. The tool is available as a standalone product and bundled as an add-on with their VIDIZMO EnterpriseTube and VIDIZMO Digital Evidence Management System.
The tool uses VIDIZMO Indexer to power its AI. This allows VIDIZMO to perform automatic redaction through on-demand detection. Redaction can be done for faces, people, custom-defined objects such as license plates, addresses, symbols, weapons like guns & rifles, and other elements.
Despite being efficient as an automatic tool, the tool can also be utilized manually for additional accuracy.
Key Features of VIDIZMO Redactor
- Automatic and Manual Redaction, meeting current market demands
- A multitude of deployment options – on the cloud, on-premises, or as SaaS
- Simplicity in terms of use and browser-based application
- Redaction for faces, objects, people, license plates, screens, and more
- Data security through access control and security protocol integration
- Option to blur, pixelate, or cover
- Liberty to label redacted elements
- Elements detected will be tracked throughout the video; they can be specified otherwise.
- Integration capabilities through widgets and APIs
- Original files may be retained or overwritten
- It can be provided as a standalone tool or an add-on with either of VIDIZMO’s products
Veritone Redact
VERITONE has its redaction tool known as VERITONE Redact, which is aimed at law enforcement data, judicial agencies, and legal and compliance teams.
The tool makes use of aiWARE to power its AI to auto-detection sensitive information. The detection results are displayed in chronological order alongside the tool’s video player. The player supports downloads of the redacted file alongside an audit log of all the changes made to it.
Key Features of VERITONE Redact
- Automatic and Manual redaction
- Specifically designed for digital evidence and law enforcement
- Can redact faces, license plates, and laptop screens, as well as custom-defined elements
- Can track elements in the video
- Integrated with VERITONE’s digital evidence system
- Works for video, audio, and images
- Redacted files can be downloaded
Axon Redaction Assistant
Axon is one of the oldest contenders in the law enforcement industry. Formerly known as TASER, the company has its own redaction tool known as Axon Redaction Assistant.
The tool has been mentioned to have the capability to detect up to twenty faces at a time. Besides faces, the tool can redact MDTs and license plates as well.
The tool can also be used manually for added accuracy, is claimed to be constantly improving, and can be executed as a background task. It also exists as an add-on for Axon Evidence.
Key Features of AXON Redaction Assistant:
- Capable of redacting up to twenty faces simultaneously
- Capable of redacting faces, license plates, and MDT screens
- Automatic and Manual Redaction
- Background execution
- Integration possible with AXON Evidence and other AXON products
Caseguard Video Redaction Software
CaseGuard’s product, CaseGuard Video Redaction Software, is a standalone video redaction tool that allows for redaction in both automatic and manual modes.
To be more specific, redaction can be performed on a video in automatic mode with the power of AI, in a manual object tracking mode where the user specifies an object to be redacted, which is later tracked and redacted throughout the video.
The last is simple manual redaction through masking with boxes, with no tracking of objects.
Key Features of CaseGuard Video Redaction Software:
- Standalone video redaction tool
- Supports redaction for video, audio, documents, and imagery
- Automatic and Manual Redaction
- Automatic Bulk Redaction
- Easy user-interface
- Tracking of detected elements throughout the video
Motorola Solutions REDACTIVE
REDACTIVE by Motorola Solutions allows for the automatic detection of faces, people, vehicles, license plates, and small objects and enables the user to manually choose which of these are to be redacted and which are not.
The tool can also scan the entire video backward and forward for any manually redacted element at any point in the video. The tool is also applicable for audio redaction.
Key Features of Motorola Solution REDACTIVE:
- Automatic and Manual Redaction
- Able to detect faces, people, vehicles, license plates, and small objects
- Tracking of detected elements back and forth in the video
- Available for audio and video redaction
- Platform independent software
Genetec Clearance Redaction Tool
Genetec Clearance comes with a built-in redaction tool that allows for redaction on-demand, with each upload being automatically scanned for facial detection.
The tool then provides liberty to the user to choose which faces are meant to be redacted and add additional masks for redacting other elements in the video.
As part of their Clearance digital evidence management system, a video can be redacted, reviewed, and directly added to a case using the tool itself.
Key Features of Genetec Clearance Redaction Tool
- Redaction tool built-in with the evidence management system
- Automatic face detection for redaction
- Automatic and Manual redaction
- Faces can be labeled
- Object redaction based on custom masks
- Easy-to-use interface
SuspectTech Exact Redact
SuspectTech (Suspect Technologies) has a redaction tool named Exact Redact. The tool provides automatic and manual redaction of video and audio data.
Using the tool, faces, people, and cars can be automatically redacted, whereas manual redaction can be used for audio and custom identifiable information. Their focus is on meeting the compliance needs as specified in CJIS.
Key Features of SuspectTech Exact Redact
- Automatic redaction of faces, cars, and people
- Manual redaction of objects
- Audio redactions present through manual mode
- Deployment options for Azure Government Cloud, on-premises, and desktop application
7 Best Redaction Software – Wrapping Notes
As there are a number of video redaction software available on the market, you need to choose the ones that suit your needs and perform accurate redaction for your videos.
Moreover, you must consider the auto and manual redaction capabilities to increase productivity and accuracy. There are many more factors like interface, user experience, integrations, and security that must be considered.
Although you might be looking for video redaction, the best redaction software supports all types of audio, video, image, and document redaction.
Check out VIDIZMO Redactor Today!
If your organization is looking for video redaction software, then try VIDIZMO Redactor by signing up for a demo.
VIDIZIMO Redactor is constantly improving with frequent new releases that add new features and improvements. The tool uses AI-based capabilities for the automatic detection of faces, people, and custom-defined objects such as license plates, addresses, symbols, and other elements in a video file.
There are a few specific features that give VIDIZMO the edge over several other providers of redaction tools and services, such as those enlisted below:
The core element that differentiates VIDIZMO Redactor from others is the ability to perform redaction through on-demand face detection upon uploading videos. This feature can be used for both EnterpriseTube and DEMS through a simple portal setting.
Another element that was found to be a rare feature among various providers of redaction software was the ability to redact automatically and manually a single file simultaneously. Most providers would allow only one of the operations in a single execution. The file would then have to be rerun for another execution to redact it fully. Fortunately, the case is not with the VIDIZMO Redactor.
VIDIZMO Redactor provides results with accuracy. You will not see broken redactions in videos where the camera is not stationary or the objects in the line of sight to be redacted frequently move.
Feel free to contact us for further info regarding any questions that you may have.
This blog article is part of our complete guide on redaction. Do check it out.
FAQs
1. What is redaction software?
Redaction software is a tool used to securely remove or obscure sensitive information from documents, images, videos, and audio. It typically offers features like text and image redaction, metadata removal, search and redact, and security measures like encryption.
2. What is video redaction?
Video redaction is the process of hiding or removing sensitive information from video files. The information can include PII, names, faces, email addresses, SSNs, license plates, and many other confidential information.
3. Is redaction irreversible?
The redaction process is irreversible if you do it on the original file. The obscured data cannot be recovered. However, the best to keep the redacted data is to create a duplicate file and then conduct the redaction process on it.