Guides
How to share your passport or ID without giving your identity away.
A marketplace buyer wants “just a photo of your ID to verify you.” A short-term rental host messages you outside the app. A landlord asks you to WhatsApp it over. Handing across a full, unedited photo of your document is one of the quickest ways to leak your identity — and once it is sitting in someone’s inbox or camera roll, you cannot get it back.
These guides explain how to show someone what they actually need to see while hiding the parts that let them impersonate you: the document number, the machine-readable zone, your date of birth and your signature. No jargon and no scare tactics — just what to cover, why it matters, and how to do it in about a minute on your phone.
They also cover the copy you keep for yourself, which is the one nobody thinks about: is it safe to keep a photo of your ID on your phone?
They are also honest about the limit. Redaction does not work everywhere. A handful of checks — a bank’s anti-money-laundering verification, guest registration at a hotel, a statutory right-to-work check — are legally required to capture the complete document, and a black bar there is a failed check rather than a protection. When redacting your ID won’t work sets out exactly where the line falls. Everything on the other side of it — marketplace buyers, hosts, private landlords, clients, platform support desks — is where these guides do their work, and that is the large majority of what you will actually be asked.
Who’s asking, and what they actually need
| Who’s asking | Redaction works? | What they genuinely need | Cover |
|---|---|---|---|
| A marketplace buyer | Send nothing | Nothing at all | The request is the red flag |
| A flatshare, before a viewing | Send nothing yet | Nothing until you have seen the room | The timing is the red flag |
| A dating match | Send nothing | Nothing, ever | No cross-app verification exists |
| A freelance client | Yes | Name and photo | Number, MRZ, date of birth, signature |
| Account recovery support | Yes | Name and photo, to match the account | Number, MRZ, signature |
| A short-term rental host | Yes | Name, photo, nationality | Number, MRZ, date of birth, signature |
| A landlord or letting agent | Yes | Name, photo, right to reside | Number, MRZ, date of birth, signature |
| A car rental desk | Partly | Name, photo, licence number | Passport number, MRZ, signature |
| Someone wanting a selfie with your ID | Check the channel first | Your face plus the name and photo | Number, MRZ, date of birth, signature |
| A hotel, at check-in | No | Document number and date of birth, by law | MRZ and signature only |
| A new employer | No, for the statutory check | The full document, once | Redact only the extra copies |
| A bank | No | The full document, via its own app | Nothing — verify the request instead |
How to send a copy of your passport safely
The safe way to send a passport copy: redact the passport number, machine-readable zone, date of birth and signature, and add a watermark.
Read the guide →How to redact a passport or ID card (and what to hide)
A step-by-step guide to redacting a passport or ID card: hide the document number, machine-readable zone, date of birth and signature, and add a watermark.
Read the guide →How to watermark a copy of your passport or ID
A watermark ties an ID copy to one recipient and one purpose. What to write, where to put it, and why a tiled watermark beats a corner stamp.
Read the guide →What is the MRZ on a passport or ID card, and why hide it?
The MRZ is the two-line code on a passport or ID card that encodes your identity in machine-readable form. What it contains, and why to redact it.
Read the guide →When redacting your ID won't work
Redaction fails for banks, hotel registration and right-to-work checks: the law wants the full document. The honest boundary, and where it does work.
Read the guide →Can someone steal your identity from an ID photo?
Yes, in specific ways. Here's exactly what fields make an ID photo dangerous and how redacting them removes most of the risk.
Read the guide →Blurring your ID yourself vs using a dedicated app
Blurring an ID photo with a markup tool is better than nothing, but it misses things a dedicated redaction app handles by default. Here's the honest comparison.
Read the guide →Redacting a Spanish DNI vs a passport: what's different
A Spanish DNI and a passport hide different fields in different places. Here's what to cover on each before sharing a copy.
Read the guide →A marketplace buyer wants to see your ID. Say no.
Buyers on Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree and Vinted sometimes ask sellers for ID. There is no legitimate reason. The script, and the scams behind it.
Read the guide →A flatshare or roommate wants your ID before viewing
Being asked for ID before viewing a room is the standard opening of a rental scam. What a real flatshare needs, when it needs it, and what to send.
Read the guide →A dating match wants you to "get verified". Don't.
A match sending you to a "safety verification" site is running a scam. How real dating-app verification works, and why it never involves your match.
Read the guide →A freelance client wants a copy of your ID
Clients and agencies ask freelancers for ID at onboarding. What is normal, what a redacted copy covers, and how to spot the fake-recruiter version.
Read the guide →Instagram wants your ID to recover your account
Locked-out account recovery genuinely asks for ID. How to tell the real flow from the fake, and what you can safely cover on the copy you send.
Read the guide →Is it safe to send an Airbnb host a copy of your ID?
Short-term rental hosts often ask for ID in the chat. Here's what the platform already verifies, what local law requires, and what to send instead.
Read the guide →Is it safe to give a landlord a copy of your ID?
Landlords and letting agents often ask for ID during referencing. Here's what's normal, what to redact, and how to send a safe copy.
Read the guide →Is it safe to send a selfie holding your ID?
Selfie-with-ID requests are sometimes a genuine identity check and sometimes a scam. The tell is how the photo is collected — plus what you can safely cover.
Read the guide →Is it safe to send your ID over WhatsApp or email?
WhatsApp and email aren't built to protect your ID. Here's what happens to the image after you hit send, and the safer way to share it.
Read the guide →Car rental ID copy: what you can't redact
Your licence number is never redactable, and in Spain vehicle rental sits inside the same registration duty as hotels. What you can still cover.
Read the guide →Can a company legally keep a copy of your ID?
Under the GDPR a company needs a lawful reason to hold a copy of your ID, and only for as long as it needs it. What that means, and how to ask for deletion.
Read the guide →You already sent an unredacted ID copy. What now?
You sent a full photo of your passport or ID and now regret it. Here's how to judge how bad it is, get it deleted, and watch the right things.
Read the guide →Hotel wants a passport copy: what you can and can't redact
Guest registration is a legal duty in much of Europe and needs your document number and date of birth. What you cannot redact, and what you still can.
Read the guide →New employer wants your ID: what you can't redact
Right-to-work and payroll checks legally need the full, unredacted document. Here's where that ends — and which of HR's other ID requests you can send redacted.
Read the guide →You cannot redact your ID for a bank — and shouldn't try
Redacting your ID will not get you through a bank's identity check — anti-money-laundering rules require the full document. What to do instead.
Read the guide →What to redact on a photo of your driving licence
A driving licence photo leaks more than people think. Which numbered fields to cover on the EU photocard, and the one case where you should redact less.
Read the guide →Why a black box drawn over a PDF is not redaction
A black rectangle drawn over a PDF is an object painted on top of the text. Select, copy, paste and it is back. What actually removes it, and how to check.
Read the guide →What a photo of your ID gives away besides the ID
An ID photo carries more than the document: capture time, device model, GPS coordinates and sometimes an unredacted thumbnail. How to check and strip it.
Read the guide →A crypto exchange wants your ID and a selfie
A licensed crypto exchange must capture your complete ID, so redaction fails. The check worth running first is the register: is this exchange authorised?
Read the guide →A mobile network or utility wants a copy of your ID
SIM registration is compulsory in Spain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but not in the UK — and almost never for utilities. What to send in each case.
Read the guide →An insurer wants a copy of your ID for a claim
Life and investment policies fall under anti-money-laundering rules. A motor, home or travel claim does not — send a redacted, watermarked copy instead.
Read the guide →Is it safe to keep a photo of your ID on your phone?
Keeping a copy of your passport or ID is normal. Keeping it in your camera roll is what goes wrong — here is why, and where to keep it instead.
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