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bh86050382
Participant
March 30, 2017
Answered

Can redacted text be restored?

  • March 30, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 3591 views

In Acrobat DC, do documents keep their original properties after sensitive text is redacted, eg If the pdf was converted back to a .DOC by Acrobat, would the ability to view/edit the document and the redacted text be restored?

On Windows 7 networked workstation.

Many thanks

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer try67

No, it can't. That would defeat the entire point of redacting it, wouldn't it?

2 replies

Participant
April 18, 2023

I just ran a test on this...starting from a Word doc, I converted it to PDF (using "Save as Adobe PDF" in Word menu). I redacted it in Adobe and then converted it back to Word. The redacted text IS DISCOVERABLE using the Word "Find" function. If you know even a small part of what you're looking for, the entire text of the redacted material showed up in the search pane.

 

So, what am I doing wrong? Or is there a way of changing the steps that actually kills the info, short of the NSA recommendation that involves manually replacing everything in a copy of the original document?

Bernd Alheit
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 18, 2023

Can you share the test PDF file?

try67
Community Expert
try67Community ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
March 30, 2017

No, it can't. That would defeat the entire point of redacting it, wouldn't it?

bh86050382
Participant
March 30, 2017

Perfect thanks, needed confirmation for Information Security dept!