I’m Ivan, a solo developer who’s been working on a privacy tool that I think you might find useful. I built BlurData to solve a problem I kept running into: accidentally sharing sensitive information in screenshots.
What it does: BlurData is a macOS app that automatically detects and blurs sensitive data in images and documents using advanced algorithms. Instead of manually selecting areas to redact, it intelligently identifies:
Email addresses
Names and personal information
Financial amounts
Account numbers
Addresses
License plates
URLs and IP addresses
Custom patterns you define with regex
Why I built it: As someone who frequently shares screenshots for work and tutorials, I was constantly paranoid about accidentally exposing private information. Existing tools required manually selecting each area to blur, which was time-consuming and error-prone. I wanted something that would just “know” what to protect.
Privacy-first approach:
All processing happens locally on your Mac
No data is sent to external servers
No tracking or analytics beyond basic app functionality
One-time purchase option available (also subscription is available)
Current status: The app is live and functional. I’m continuing to improve the detection algorithms and add new pattern types based on user feedback.
Would love to hear your thoughts or answer any questions about the approach! Always interested in feedback from privacy-conscious users.
I don’t own a Mac but I am curious on the error rate or mistake rate of not identify what is sensitive information or accidently blurring something that wasn’t sensitive but you would have like to share.
Is there a way to manually edit in case of a mistake?
Is it FOSS? I don’t see any indication of it being so on the website.
You have a lifetime payment option which can act as a one time payment but I see no promise from you to support and keep developing it for any number of years to it is going to be hard to justify the cost for atleast the number of years you may be promising if you did. Please clarify this if you are able to.
Private payment options or even Bitcoin is not accepted. For a privacy app, I think this should be made possible at the very least.
–
But I will try it for free and report back on my experience with feedback. But these are my thoughts for now. It’s good to see such an app for macOS. I wish it were FOSS though, I would be more willing to buy it then.
Can BlurData cut out parts from images instead of adding a black layer? Also, could you include on the website the different threat models/pros and cons for different image obfuscation methods like blurring or cutting?
The added black or colored layer cannot be reversed as in the saving process it is completely replaced pixel by pixel. Also the new update of the app is bringing blur to another level. And that cannot be reversed too!
On long-term support - I use this daily myself so it’s not going anywhere soon. Can’t promise decades (no indie dev can realistically), but definitely planning for years.
I will add a more detailed info on Gumroad, that is where I’ve added the lifetime license.
Crypto payments - I hear you, but I’m currently using LS/Stripe for payments and honestly don’t have the setup for Bitcoin yet. It’s more complex than it sounds from a legal/accounting perspective for a small business.
Appreciate the feedback though, and would love to hear how the trial goes!
You can remove things from the list before blurring, but can’t add stuff it missed (yet).
Other platforms - would love to! But I’m just one person right now, so focusing on making the Mac version really good first. Windows would probably be next if there’s demand.
I used to be big into Linux - especially elementaryOS (even blogged about it). But focusing on macOS for now since it has the native features that inspired this app.
As a solo dev I can’t really tackle multiple platforms at once - gotta pick my battles!
