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How to redact a passport or driver's license copy

By RedactSnap ·

Hotels, landlords, employers and online services often ask for a copy of your ID when they only need your name, photo or age. Before you send a passport or driver's license photo, cover the document number, the machine-readable zone and anything else they don't need. It takes about a minute.

What to hide on an ID

  • Document number: the passport number, license number or ID card number.
  • The machine-readable zone (MRZ): the two or three lines of letters, digits and < signs at the bottom of a passport or ID card. They repeat your document number, nationality, date of birth and expiry date, so hiding the printed fields isn't enough on its own.
  • The barcode on the back of a US or Canadian driver's license. It encodes the details printed on the front.
  • Date of birth, unless the recipient needs to check your age. Leaving the year visible is often enough.
  • Your signature, your home address if it isn't needed, and the background of the photo (other documents, your desk, your screen).

Redact a passport photo step by step

The screenshots use a specimen passport from the fictitious country Utopia. Smart Scan doesn't look for passport numbers or MRZ lines, so ID fields are covered by hand.

  1. Step 1: Take a photo or scan of the ID, then open redactsnap.com/app and drop it in. PNG, JPG and PDF all work.

  2. Step 2: With the box tool, drag a box over the document number, the date of birth and the whole machine-readable zone. Leave a margin around each one. The Redactions list shows every box you've drawn.

    A specimen passport in RedactSnap with boxes over the passport number, date of birth and MRZ

  3. Step 3: Click Export and download. A photo downloads as a PNG with the boxes burned into the pixels and the original's EXIF data, including GPS location, removed. Choose "Download as PDF instead" if the recipient wants a PDF.

    The exported passport image with the number, date of birth and MRZ covered by solid boxes

  4. Step 4: Optionally, add a line such as "Copy for [company] ID check, October 2026 only" in an image editor, so the copy is harder to reuse elsewhere.

When you can't redact

Regulated checks often need the full document: right-to-work checks, bank and crypto account opening (KYC), and some visa and rental applications. If a business insists, ask why it needs each field, how it stores the copy and when it deletes it. Prefer an in-app or in-person check over emailing a photo.

Try it on your own file

Both tools run in your browser. The image is not uploaded.

Redact an image with solid boxesOpen Screenshot Studio

Sources

Frequently asked questions

What is the MRZ on a passport?

The machine-readable zone is the block of text with < signs at the bottom of the photo page. It encodes your name, passport number, nationality, date of birth, sex and expiry date, so hide it along with the printed fields.

Can I blur my passport number instead?

No. Blurred and pixelated text has been recovered many times, and passport numbers are short and in a known font. Use a solid box.

Is it legal to send a redacted ID copy?

Sharing a partly covered copy of your own ID is generally fine. The recipient decides whether to accept it, and some regulated checks need the full document.

Is my ID uploaded?

No. The image is opened and redacted in your browser, and no copy is sent to a server.