How to Blur a Database Admin Tool When Screen Sharing (pgAdmin, phpMyAdmin, Adminer)

To hide data in a web-based database admin tool like pgAdmin, phpMyAdmin, or Adminer while you screen-share, use a browser blur extension like BlurFirst to blur result grids, connection details, and the object tree before you present. These tools run in the browser, so BlurFirst covers the query editor, the results grid, and the connection setup. The blur is real pixels painted into the page, so it survives Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Loom, OBS, and screenshots.

What's risky to show in a database admin tool

• Query result grids — every row can be customer PII: names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, order totals, even password hashes.
• Table and column names — the grid headers and the object tree describe your data model and hint at exactly what you store.
• Connection strings, host, and credentials — the connection or server-setup screen shows hostnames, ports, usernames, and sometimes passwords that unlock the database directly.
• The SQL query editor — a WHERE clause or an INSERT can contain literal PII, tokens, or the exact record you're troubleshooting.
• Schema and database names in the tree — the left-hand navigator (pgAdmin's Browser tree, phpMyAdmin's database list) names schemas, databases, and tables that map your whole environment.

Why you box-blur the result columns

A results grid scrolls — vertically through rows and often horizontally through columns — so element-blurring one cell at a time is a losing battle. Instead, box-blur the columns that hold PII (name, email, phone) and leave the ID and status columns readable. Because a box blur is anchored to a region of the page, it stays over those columns as you scroll new rows into view, so you can page through results while the sensitive fields stay frosted. For the connection screen and the object tree — which don't scroll the same way — an element blur on a single field or tree node works well, because clicking it again reveals it when you need to.

How to blur pgAdmin, phpMyAdmin, or Adminer

1. 1

   Run the query and arrange the panels first

   Get your results grid, SQL editor, and object tree into the layout you'll present before the call, so the screen is settled.

2. 2

   Start BlurFirst

   Press Ctrl/⌘ ⇧ Y to begin blurring on the current page.

3. 3

   Box-blur the PII columns

   Drag a rectangle over the name, email, and phone columns in the grid. It stays anchored as you scroll through rows, so the ID and status columns stay readable for your walkthrough.

4. 4

   Element-blur the connection details and tree

   Click the host or credentials field on the connection screen, or a database/schema node in the tree, to hide just it; click again to reveal after the call.

5. 5

   Scan for stragglers, and keep panic ready

   Run Scan (Pro) to catch emails, phone numbers, credit-card numbers, and SSNs anywhere on the page, and press Ctrl/⌘ ⇧ H if a new query returns unexpected data. Scan matches patterns, not free-text names, so names in a grid still need the box blur.

Set it up once for your admin tool

If you demo from pgAdmin or Adminer regularly, save the column and tree blurs and turn on per-site auto-apply for the tool's URL with BlurFirst Pro, so they re-apply each time the page loads. Because these tools often live behind a fixed internal host, a per-site profile makes the structural blurs — the object tree, the connection panel — reliable, and you only draw the per-query column blur each session. A saved blur stores only a CSS selector, never the row data.