How to share a receipt without your card details
What a receipt can show
A shop receipt looks harmless, but it can hold more than you'd think:
- Part of your card number. In the US, federal law says an electronically printed receipt may show no more than the last five digits of the card number and must leave out the expiration date, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). That's a US rule. Other countries have their own, and some receipts, such as handwritten ones, aren't covered by it.
- Your name, if you paid by card or signed up for a loyalty program.
- An address or phone number, on a delivery or online order.
- Account, member or order numbers, which a support line may accept as proof it's you.
- Barcodes and QR codes. We can't tell what one holds. It may be an order, a member or a refund number, so treat it as sensitive.
- Where and when you were, which says something about your day.
A few digits on their own aren't enough to use your card. But together with your name, the date and a call to a support line, they can make someone sound like you.
What to cover and what to leave
| Cover | Leave visible |
|---|---|
| Card digits, even the last four, if the person doesn't need them | The store name |
| Your name and address | The date |
| Member, loyalty and account numbers | The items and prices |
| Barcodes and QR codes | The total and tax |
Ask first. A store handling a return may need the order number or barcode, and an employer's expense team may need the store and total. It's fine to ask, "What do you need to see?"
Step by step
- Take a flat, clear picture, or use the one you have.
- Cover the details with solid black boxes, made a little bigger than the text. Blur isn't safe for this. Neither is Markup on its own, because the original stays underneath.
- Save it as a new picture, then zoom in and check every corner, including the very bottom, where numbers often hide.
- Remove the location. Here's how.
- Send it only to the person who asked, and delete your extra copies afterward.
For a PDF receipt or an email, a box drawn over it may leave the text underneath, so someone could still copy it. Make a picture of the page first, then cover that.
How FirstHour helps
In Share, choose the receipt and FirstHour suggests boxes over the card and account numbers and codes it recognizes. You can add, move or resize any of them, then tap Send. The copy has no location or camera details, and FirstHour reads it again and warns you if it can still read a name or number. Your original isn't changed. Here's the step by step.
Limits: on an ordinary receipt it won't know which of your name, address, member number or barcode matter, so drag boxes over those yourself. Cover all text would cover the items and total as well. It checks pictures, not PDFs, and it doesn't find faces. It can't take back a receipt you already sent.
Questions
Is it safe to keep old receipts in my photos?
Most are fine. The risky ones show a full number, an address or an account, which is the same problem as screenshots of bank details. Here's how to find the ones that matter.
What if my receipt only shows the last four digits?
That's much less than a full number, but we'd still cover it when the person doesn't need it, because it's easy and costs nothing.
I sent a receipt with my full number by mistake.
Call your bank, using the number on your card or in its own app, and ask about a new card. Deleting your copy doesn't delete theirs.
Sources
- FTC Reminds Businesses Law Requires Them to Truncate Credit Card Data on Receipts, Federal Trade Commission
- Never use text pixelation to redact sensitive information, Bishop Fox
- Manage location metadata in Photos, Apple Support