Sincron Screen ToolsShare selection
Sales dashboard · 2026
Sales by region — September
Monthly revenue compared with August
Total
$1.25M
+4.2% vs. August
$412K
East
$296K
South
$262K
West
$198K
Central
$77K
North
down 41% here
Privacy guide · Windows 10 & 11
How to hide sensitive info in a screenshot.
Passwords, customer emails, account numbers, a token in the address bar: a rushed screenshot spreads them across chats and tickets. Here is what actually hides data, and how to do it on Windows.
Download free for WindowsSee how to hide itWindows 10 & 11 · capture and annotation are free, with no limits
Privacy guide · Windows 10 & 11
How do you safely hide information in a screenshot?
Take the information out of the image: leave it outside the crop when you capture, or cover it with a solid, 100% opaque box. Blur and pixelation are not safe. Public tools such as Bishop Fox's Unredacter and Depix reconstruct pixelated text, and Google's developer documentation style guide says not to rely on blur or mosaic effects to hide personal data.
On Windows 11, the Snipping Tool's Text actions recognize the text in a capture and can redact all email addresses and phone numbers at once. Its Shapes button and Paint both draw rectangles with a solid fill to cover the rest.
Sincron Screen Tools has no blur or redaction tool. With it, crop the data out during selection (Ctrl + Shift + C), or cover it with the pen, which is opaque, in black at maximum thickness in the drawing layer (Ctrl + Shift + D) before you capture. The highlighter is translucent and hides nothing.
Reviewed on October 3, 2026
Comparison
Blur, pixelate or black box: what actually hides data
| Method | Safe? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Blur | No | Letters keep their shape, size and spacing. With the font known, an attacker can test candidate text until one matches the blur. |
| Pixelation (mosaic) | No | Tools such as Unredacter and Depix recover pixelated text by comparing pixel blocks with text rendered in the same font. |
| Highlighter | No | It is translucent on purpose: the text stays readable underneath. |
| Outline-only rectangle | No | It only frames the data and draws more attention to it. |
| Solid, 100% opaque box | Yes | The pixels of the data are replaced by the color. There is nothing to reverse. |
| Leaving it out of the crop | Yes, safest | The data never enters the image. |
Sources: Bishop Fox (Unredacter), the Depix repository and Google's developer documentation style guide, checked on 2026-10-03.
Step by step
How to hide sensitive info in a screenshot before sharing
Works with any tool. Where the method differs, each step says how to do it in the Snipping Tool, Paint and Sincron.
Crop to what needs to go
Drag the selection over the part that explains the issue and leave out tabs, notifications, the address bar and side panels. Win + Shift + S and Ctrl + Shift + C crop in the same gesture, before any file exists.
Cover what has to stay in frame with a solid color
In the Snipping Tool, use Shapes > rectangle with a fill color. In Paint, draw a rectangle with a solid color fill. In Sincron, open the drawing layer, pick black, max out the thickness and go over the data with the pen until no pixel of it shows, then capture with drawings.
Use automatic redaction for emails and phone numbers
In the Windows 11 Snipping Tool, select Text actions, then Quick redact to hide every email address and phone number. For any other text, select it and choose Redact text from the right-click menu. Anything you don't select stays in the image.
Check it zoomed in
Zoom in before you send. Letter tips above or below the box, a digit left uncovered, or the same data repeated in the window title give away what you tried to hide.
Deal with the original
The Snipping Tool saves every capture to your Screenshots folder automatically; delete the original or turn off auto-save in its settings. Sincron saves nothing on its own: the image only becomes a file when you click Save PNG.
Cover it before you capture
Opaque pen first, screenshot second
In Sincron's drawing layer, the pen covers whatever is underneath. Pick black, raise the thickness and go over a number on the dashboard to see it.
Sales dashboard · 2026
Sales by region — September
Monthly revenue compared with August
Total
$1.25M
+4.2% vs. August
$412K
East
$296K
South
$262K
West
$198K
Central
$77K
North
down 41% here
Draw here
Hold Shift for a straight line, Ctrl for a rectangle and Ctrl + Shift for an arrow.
Where data slips out
The leaks people miss
Notifications and tabs
A chat notification in the corner or the title of a browser tab ends up in a full-screen capture. Cropping to the region fixes it.
URLs and file paths
URLs carry IDs, tokens and email addresses. Paths like C:\Users\name reveal the username. Check the address bar and the window title.
The same data twice
The account number you covered in the form may show up again in the header, the search box or the history. Look for each item across the whole image.
Real limits
What no tool will do for you
Sincron has no blur or redaction box
There is no filled-box tool in Sincron. A thick pen covers data but takes a few passes, and the app's rectangle is outline only. For clean boxes in bulk, the Snipping Tool and Paint draw filled rectangles.
Automatic redaction is partial
The Snipping Tool's Quick redact only catches email addresses and phone numbers. Names, IDs, addresses and API keys depend on you selecting them one by one, and text the recognizer can't read is left out.
Cropping and saving over the file
In 2023 Microsoft fixed a flaw (CVE-2023-28303) where cropping a screenshot in the Snipping Tool and saving over the same file left the cropped part recoverable. Keep the app updated and prefer copy and paste or saving to a new file.
Once it's sent, it's out
Deleting the message doesn't delete copies people already downloaded or forwarded. The check has to happen before Ctrl + V.
Common questions about hiding data in screenshots
Does blurring a screenshot hide the information?
Not safely. Blur keeps the shape of the letters, and public tools already reconstruct pixelated text. To really hide something, crop it out or cover it with a solid, opaque box.
How do I hide a password or account number in a screenshot?
Leave the field out of the crop. If it has to show, cover it with a filled rectangle (Snipping Tool or Paint) or with a black pen at maximum thickness in Sincron, and check it zoomed in before you send it.
Does the Snipping Tool have a blur tool?
Microsoft's list of Snipping Tool features has no blur. It offers Text actions, which redact emails, phone numbers and selected text, and shapes with a fill to cover the rest. For sensitive data that is better than blur anyway.
Is pixelation safer than blur?
No. Bishop Fox published Unredacter specifically to show that pixelated text can be reversed. The firm's own policy is to redact only with solid black bars.
Does Sincron have a blur tool?
No. Sincron has no blur, pixelation or ready-made redaction box. You hide data by cropping it out during selection or by covering it with the opaque pen in the drawing layer before you capture.
See also
Screenshots for bug reports
What a bug screenshot needs to show and how to send it marked up, for support, QA and devs.
How to annotate a screenshot
Three ways to mark up a screenshot on Windows 11: Snipping Tool, Paint and Sincron.
Lightshot alternative
Fast, annotated screenshots on Windows without a public prnt.sc link.
Crop to what matters and send only that.
With Sincron Screen Tools, Ctrl + Shift + C crops in one gesture and nothing is saved unless you ask. Capturing and annotating are free with no limits, and they work offline.