Blur faces and private details in 360 photos

A 360 photo is a whole room in one picture, and its left and right edges are the same place. A face or a frame on that spot is cut in two on the flat photo. Here an area that runs off one edge carries on at the other, and the blur joins without a line, so nothing shows when someone turns round in the tour.

Near the ceiling and the floor a 360 photo is stretched sideways. The blur and the blocks are sized as they are seen in the room, so a spot over the floor or a light on the ceiling is hidden evenly all round, whatever the stretching.

The easiest way to find things in a 360 photo is to look round it: open the 360 view, turn until what you want to hide is in the circle, set the circle's size and hide it. A 2:1 360 photo keeps its size and its 360 metadata, and opens as a 360 photo in a Vistura tour and in 360 viewers that read it.

• Faces: the owners, their children, a tenant or a neighbour in a doorway, and the photographer in a mirror. In a 360 photo the camera sees every direction at once.
• Family photos and personal things: frames on the walls and shelves, children's names on a bedroom door, certificates, religious or medical items the owners would rather keep private.
• Documents and screens: letters and bills on a table, a calendar, a whiteboard, a laptop or a TV showing someone's account.
• Number plates: the owners' car in the drive or the garage, and cars parked in the street outside.
• Clues to the home's security: an alarm panel with its code, keys on a hook, a safe.

A listing is public: anyone can save its photos, and a 360 photo shows every corner of a room. Hiding the owners' faces and personal things protects them from being recognised by strangers, and buyers look at the home rather than at the people who live in it.

In the EU, a photo in which a person can be recognised can count as personal data under the GDPR. Hiding faces and number plates before you publish keeps them out of the listing. For what applies to your own listings, ask your agency or your data protection adviser.

A light blur over small text can sometimes be read back, and blocks that are too small can still give away a plate. This tool starts both effects from blocks, each one a single average colour of the pixels under it, so the detail is taken out of the file rather than softened. Blur then smooths the blocks so the area looks calm; Pixelate shows them.

The block size follows each area's size, so the same strength hides a small plate and a large frame equally well. For number plates, documents and screens, use strength 9 or 10.

• Before you start, walk through the home and put away family photos, letters, bills and anything with a name on it. Close laptops and turn off screens.
• Ask the owners and anyone else to leave the room. Most 360 cameras can be started from an app, a remote or a timer: use it to leave the room before the photo is taken.
• Look at mirrors, windows and glass doors from the camera's place: they show the photographer and what is outside.
• Move cars out of the drive, or shoot the outside when the street is quiet.
• Check each 360 photo by turning all the way round before you leave the room. Anything you missed, you hide here.