![]() In some cases, sanitizing a classified document removes enough information to reduce the classification from a higher level to a lower one. Maps have also been redacted for the same reason, with highly sensitive areas covered with a slip of white paper. ![]() The printed document will consequently be sanitized to obscure or remove the sensitive information. There may be a need to release the less sensitive portions to uncleared personnel. Printed documents which contain classified or sensitive information frequently contain a great deal of information which is less sensitive. Notations with leader lines at top and bottom cite statutory authority for not declassifying certain sections. ![]() Classified information has been blocked out so that only the unclassified information is visible. National Security Agency report Archived at the Wayback Machine on the USS Liberty incident, which was declassified and released to the public in July 2003. ![]() Printed matter Ī page of a classified document that has been sanitized for public release. The US National Security Agency (NSA) published a guidance document which provides instructions for redacting PDF files. US government documents released under the Freedom of Information Act are marked with exemption codes that denote the reason why the content has been withheld. Redaction may administratively require marking of the redacted area with the reason that the content is being restricted. This process, internally complex, can be carried out very easily by a user with the aid of "redaction" functions in software for editing PDF or other files. Effective redaction of electronic documents requires the removal of all relevant text and image data from the document file. Where text is redacted, in Portable Document (PDF) or word processor formats, by overlaying graphical elements (usually black rectangles) over text, the original text remains in the file and can be uncovered by simply deleting the overlaying graphics. In some file formats, unused portions of memory are saved that may still contain fragments of previous versions of the text. Word processing formats may save a revision history of the edited text that still contains the redacted text. Secure redacting is more complicated with computer files. The UK National Archives published a document, Redaction Toolkit, Guidelines for the Editing of Exempt Information from Documents Prior to Release, "to provide guidance on the editing of exempt material from information held by public bodies." Where computer-generated proportional fonts were used, even more information can leak out of the redacted section in the form of the exact position of nearby visible characters. The exact length of the removed text also remains recognizable, which may help in guessing plausible wordings for shorter redacted sections. For example, if the black pen or tape is not wide enough, careful examination of the resulting photocopy may still reveal partial information about the text, such as the difference between short and tall letters. This is a simple process with only minor security risks. Alternatively opaque "cover up tape" or "redaction tape", opaque, removable adhesive tape in various widths, may be applied before photocopying. Redacting confidential material from a paper document before its public release involves overwriting portions of text with a wide black pen, followed by photocopying the result-the obscured text may be recoverable from the original. Secure document redaction techniques Ī heavily redacted page from a 2004 lawsuit filed by the ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union v. In the context of government documents, redaction (also called sanitization) generally refers more specifically to the process of removing sensitive or classified information from a document prior to its publication, during declassification. Originally, the term sanitization was applied to printed documents it has since been extended to apply to computer files and the problem of data remanence. When the intent is privacy protection, it is often called data anonymization. When the intent is secrecy protection, such as in dealing with classified information, redaction attempts to reduce the document's classification level, possibly yielding an unclassified document. Typically, the result is a document that is suitable for publication or for dissemination to others rather than the intended audience of the original document. It is intended to allow the selective disclosure of information. Redaction or sanitization is the process of removing sensitive information from a document so that it may be distributed to a broader audience. For other uses, see Redaction (disambiguation). ![]()
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