Removing sensitive info from scanned PDFs and using a marker, vs acrobat post scan for info

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
January 27, 2019
4 replies
2330 views

Greetings, I have been referred from the Photoshop forum to this forum for some help.

I have some paperwork that was scanned with a Fujitsu Scansnap scanner as PDFs. I am now to sort through the original paperwork and shred it and then upload the scans to the cloud, specifically google drive.

I opened some of the scans, and see that there are social security numbers on them, and birthdates, and I don't want this information in the cloud. Most of these scanned PDFs were scans of forms that were filled out with handwriting.

Is there a way to remove the sensitive info on the scans before uploading and be sure the info cannot be found?

or would it be better to rescan those papers and before rescanning use a black marker or white out (which would be better?) to mark out the sensitive info?

I could rescan after using a marker, but this seems labor intensive, and I already have scans of some of this stuff, and would like to avoid rescanning if possible.

Also, as I am sorting through the papers, for those ones that I don't have a scan of, what would be best? to use a marker to blot out info before scanning? or remove the info post scanning in acrobat?

any info would be appreiciated before I embark on this project, and would like to get off to a good start at the beginning of it.

General troubleshooting

This topic has been closed for replies.

M

missartistAuthor

Known Participant

Thank you all for your help in this, I feel much better now going forward.

jane-e

Community Expert

You’re welcome, and ask again if questions come up!

~Jane

jane-e

Community Expert

Hi missartist

Here is Rick Borsteins Legal Blog on Redaction in Acrobat X.

Rick’s Acrobat X Redaction Guide

Open the Protection panel on the right hand side.
First, set the appearance. The default is black.
Second, mark for redaction. If you have trouble because the text was scanned, use Cmd+Drag (Win: Ctrl+Drag) to mark the text. The markups will be comments until you click Apply. You can save and close and reopen during this process.
If you make a mistake, click the marked item and then click delete.
When you apply Redations, the text is gone. The Comments are also gone. The Redaction is pemanent.
Acrobat will ask if you want to search for hidden items. You can say yes or no, because you can do this separately later. It will look in Bookmarks, Metadata, cropped images, cropped pages, objects blocking out other objects. etc.
There is no going back. Keep the original. In Preferences, the default is to add _Redacted after the name when saved and to save a copy. Confirm this so you don’t overwrite the original.

M

missartistAuthor

Known Participant

In the Redaction properties, there are some choices; redacted fill color; I set to black, and then redaction mark appearance; outline - I set to black, and fill color - I set to black, then fill opacity is 100%.

Are these the right settings for redact properties?

Barb Binder

Community Expert

OK! So now we have your question in the right spot.

I don't have Acrobat X installed anymore but I have my workbook. (I'm an Acrobat trainer.) So:

Open a copy of the file (you can't undo this, so work on a copy of the original)
Open the Protection panel in the Tools pane then Redaction Properties
In Appearance, choose Color (black is expected) and any other properties you want to set
In Black Out & Remove Content, choose Mark for Redaction
Highlight desired words, phrases and paragraphs
In Black Out & Remove Content, choose Apply Redaction
Save the copy

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training