Face Blurring for Construction Cameras
The most effective way to document your construction site while respecting privacy. Builder.Cam's on-camera face blurring ensures only anonymized photos reach the cloud— making GDPR compliance straightforward.
Privacy by Design
With on-camera face blurring, you're not "anonymizing personal data"—you're not collecting it in the first place. This is the strongest privacy position under GDPR and significantly reduces your compliance obligations.
How On-Camera Face Blurring Works
Camera Captures Photo
The camera captures a high-resolution photo at your configured interval.
AI Detects Faces
On-device AI analyzes the photo and identifies all faces in the frame.
Faces Are Blurred
Detected faces are immediately obscured with a blur effect, making individuals unidentifiable.
Anonymized Photo Uploaded
Only the blurred photo is transmitted to the cloud. The original is never stored or sent.
Comparing Face Blurring Approaches
Not all face blurring is equal. Where the processing happens matters for privacy and compliance.
On-Camera (Edge) Processing
RecommendedBuilder.Cam
AI runs on the camera itself. Faces are blurred before any photo leaves the device.
- Detected faces anonymized before transmission
- Strongest GDPR compliance position
- Works offline / with intermittent connectivity
- No cloud processing costs or delays
- Requires capable camera hardware
- Cannot be undone (privacy preserved permanently)
Cloud Processing
Some competitors
Photos uploaded in full detail, then processed in the cloud to blur faces.
- Can be applied retroactively to old photos
- No special hardware required
- Personal data transmitted to cloud servers
- Original unblurred photos exist temporarily
- Higher GDPR compliance burden
- Depends on cloud availability
Manual Blurring
Basic systems
Users manually select and blur faces after capture.
- Full control over what gets blurred
- Time-consuming and impractical at scale
- Relies on human effort and consistency
- Photos stored unblurred until processed
- High risk of missed faces
Technical Details
Neural network runs locally on the camera hardware
Faces detected and blurred within seconds of capture
Only anonymized photos uploaded to secure storage
When to Use Face Blurring
Frequently Asked Questions
Does face blurring affect photo quality for construction documentation?
No. Face blurring only affects the small regions where faces are detected. The rest of the photo—your construction site, equipment, materials, and progress—remains in full resolution. You can still see exactly what's happening on site; you just can't identify individual people.
What happens if the AI misses a face?
Modern face detection AI is highly accurate, but no system is perfect. Builder.Cam uses conservative detection settings that may occasionally blur non-face objects (like faces on posters) rather than miss actual faces. For maximum privacy, it's better to over-blur than under-blur.
Can face blurring be turned off?
Yes, face blurring is configurable. Some sites (like closed industrial facilities with no public access) may not require anonymization. However, for most construction sites where workers and visitors are present, we recommend keeping it enabled to simplify GDPR compliance.
Does face blurring slow down the camera?
The processing adds a few seconds to each capture cycle, but this doesn't affect your configured photo interval. If you've set the camera to capture every 5 minutes, you'll still get photos every 5 minutes. The AI processing happens within that cycle.
Can I blur faces on old photos that weren't captured with blurring enabled?
Yes, we can apply face blurring to historical photos through our cloud platform. However, this means the original unblurred photos were already transmitted and stored, which has different GDPR implications than on-camera blurring. We recommend enabling face blurring from the start whenever possible.
Does face blurring work on vehicles and license plates?
Standard face blurring focuses on human faces. License plate blurring is available as a separate feature. If your site has vehicle traffic and you want to anonymize plates, let us know and we can enable this additional detection.
Related Topics
Privacy-First Documentation
On-camera face blurring is included with every Builder.Cam subscription. Document your project with confidence.
