Publications
CONFERENCE (INTERNATIONAL) Comparative Evaluation of Visual Obfuscation Methods for Protecting Private Information in Screen Sharing
Rimi Makita (Ochanomizu University), Mizuki Ishida (Ochanomizu University), Kaori Ikematsu, Yuki Igarashi (Ochanomizu University)
The ACM International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction (MobileHCI 2025)
September 21, 2025
With the widespread use of online conferencing tools like Zoom on both PCs and mobile devices, there is a growing risk of unintentional exposure of private information through screen sharing. To address this issue, automated systems have been developed to detect and obscure private information on screens. However, the effectiveness of visual obfuscation methods—such as masking and blurring—has not been thoroughly evaluated. This study aims to identify an effective obfuscation method that achieves a balance between privacy protection and viewing experience for on-screen information. We conducted an online experiment with 55 participants, in which six types of filters were evaluated, including variations in blurring, pixelation, and masking strength and color. The results indicate that users preferred filters with high privacy protection, particularly those that appeared more natural. Among the tested methods, background-color masking received the highest ratings for both privacy protection and viewing experience, suggesting that it is a well-balanced obfuscation method.
Paper :
Comparative Evaluation of Visual Obfuscation Methods for Protecting Private Information in Screen Sharing
(external link)