Quality Control (QC) Check before Producing So, don’t forget to check and remove any sensitive data here, as well. Failing to check the produced metadata for redacted documents could enable redacted data to slip through. You may redact content on the document that you produce separately as metadata, via a load or data file. You may even want to agree to copy the entire content of a redacted document to a new file (to remove residual document composition information that might remain). Instead, you’ll want to agree on a procedure where the text is deleted or replaced with an equal amount of meaningless content (e.g., all “X”s) to preserve text flow and pagination (make sure track changes is off before redacting). All you have to do is to revert back to the original formatting or simply highlight the affected area to see the redacted text. Changing the text to white or the background to match the text color is not the same as redacting the text. If so, as is the case with Adobe PDF files, there’s a right way and wrong way to redact native files. Sometimes the parties agree to “redact” the native files themselves and produce those. Typically, the approach is to convert those to an image format and redact the image. If you’re producing native files, you’ve hopefully discussed with opposing counsel how to handle native files that require redaction. This happens more often than you might think. If you don’t update the corresponding text files, you’re allowing redacted text to slip through the production “back door”. However, if the file is exported or printed, that box gets “burned” in as a black box to completely obscure the redacted text.įailing to Update Corresponding Text Files to Remove Redacted TextĮven if the image is handled properly, you can still disclose redacted text if you don’t make sure that the corresponding text file, whether extracted from the native file or generated via Optical Character Recognition (OCR), isn’t updated to remove the redacted text. For example, CloudNine provides a tool to enable the reviewer to draw a gray box over the text to be redacted so that text can still be viewed within the application. If you’re using a review application to manage the review, the application should ensure a “burned in” redaction for anything exported or printed, regardless of whether it lets you look at the redacted data within the application itself. Acrobat provides a redaction tool (for those editing the PDF there) to properly apply a redaction – it’s best to save the file to a new name after the redaction has been applied. A simple “cut and paste” can remove the black box, revealing the redacted text. Especially when your images are Adobe Acrobat PDF files, the most common mistake is to redact by obscuring the text by drawing a black box over the text or images you want redacted. If the redaction isn’t “burned” into the image so that it cannot be removed, the redacted data can still be viewed. Here are a few things to consider to avoid getting “burned by redaction failures.įailure to “Burn” the Redaction into the Image There’s a lot more to consider in order to ensure that you don’t inadvertently produce information that was intended to be redacted. All you need to do is draw a black box over the affected text, right? Not necessarily. On the surface, it may seem easy enough to redact a document during eDiscovery review to obscure confidential or privileged information. Having addressed this issue with a client recently, it seems appropriate to revisit this topic…
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