Show HN: Chrome extension to blur personal data before screen capture (opens in new tab)

Maker here. I have built the DataMask Chrome extension out of personal frustration when manually hiding private data in screenshots for my blog articles. I was spending a lot of time opening Chrome Dev tools manipulating website content and then finishing the job with Sketch. I wanted a tool which would let me do this work without leaving the browser and remove the need to use dev tools or design software all together. With this in mind DataMask was born. After several iterations it can now automatically scramble all text on a website, draw blur rectangles and enable basic HTML edit capabilities.

Give DataMask a go and let me know how I can improve it further.

Oh, this seems like HTML-aware stuff, so has it's niche.

For others that want to supercharge screenshotting capabilities, look at Greenshot (https://getgreenshot.org/) You can mask whatever you want right away. Torn edges. Highlight. Conveniently set numbers, add text, upload to web and get URL in your clipboard. Or save locally and have File path in your clipboard.

By default, When I press print screen, I get the crosshair to crop some region of my screen. Super fast, super convenient. What a time saver. Just a happy user.

When you click to install, it says the extension can "read and change your data on www.googleapis.com".

Can't it read and change your data on any site where you invoke it, not just www.googleapis.com? This seems like an interesting conundrum — the only pages where you would invoke it are pages that have information you'd like to keep private. But you're granting the developer of the extension read/write access to the content on these pages, which seems unwise unless you know and trust the dev.

As someone with an accessibility-related extension that needs broad access, I can say that some folks are hesitant to install any extensions that have broad read/write access. Some companies (including Google, I'm told) forbid employees from installing extensions that have global read/write access, and would presumably feel the same way about this extension since it is intended to be invoked on pages with private content. I wish the creator the best of luck — this seems like a cool tool! — but I wonder about how this will pan out.

A couple pricing suggestions, since I also started out at $10/yr: set your price higher and offer coupons. I thought the affordability and simplicity of $10/yr would be a winner, but it isn't. People expect discounts on software, so they'll wait until they get one. If you don't give a coupon, many of them will give up and uninstall. You'll have more revenue AND more customers if you price at $15 and give random $5-off coupons.

Also, it appears this is a free trial that becomes paid, with no free functionality past the expiration of the trial. I would suggest allowing some functionality (perhaps 2x uses per month?) to post-trial users, so they have a reason to stick around instead of just uninstalling.

It would also provide a greater inducement for people to sign up — I like the idea of your extension, but I won't install because I don't value it at $10/yr — and I don't want to spend time learning how to use a tool that I'm only going to have access to for a short time. If there were an ongoing-but-usage-limited functionality, I would be much more likely to install.

I'm happy to share more learnings from 7 years in the Chrome Store, if you find any of this helpful. Contact info is in my profile.

Just an FYI but clicking on the link triggers Metamask's [1] Ethereum Phishing Detection, here's a screenshot:

https://i.imgur.com/p2m8nil.png

[1] https://metamask.io/

I get a nasty warning from Ethereum:

This domain is currently on the MetaMask domain warning list. This means that based on information available to us, MetaMask believes this domain could currently compromise your security and, as an added safety feature, MetaMask has restricted access to the site. To override this, please read the rest of this warning for instructions on how to continue at your own risk.

There are many reasons sites can appear on our warning list, and our warning list compiles from other widely used industry lists. Such reasons can include known fraud or security risks, such as domains that test positive on the Ethereum Phishing Detector. Domains on these warning lists may include outright malicious websites and legitimate websites that have been compromised by a malicious actor.

To read more about this site please review the domain on Etherscam.

Note that this warning list is compiled on a voluntary basis. This list may be inaccurate or incomplete. Just because a domain does not appear on this list is not an implicit guarantee of that domain's safety. As always, your transactions are your own responsibility. If you wish to interact with any domain on our warning list, you can do so by continuing at your own risk.

If you think this domain is incorrectly flagged or if a blocked legitimate website has resolved its security issues, please file an issue.

I normally run a https://crxcavator.io/ check on any extension, but cannot because it's free. I'm assuming this is all done locally?

Chrome and privacy don't go together. Are you planning on releasing a version for Firefox?

Porting extensions to FF is very easy because of how similar WebExtensions is to the Chrome extension API: https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebExtensions