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September 26, 2024
Question

can someone change creation dates in document properties to past dates

  • September 26, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 1685 views

HI, 

 

Can someone change the creation dates to past dates in document properties in Adobe acrobat Pro. Is it legal, what are the legal actions that adobe can take on that person. 

 

Thanks, 

 

MK

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3 replies

Abambo
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 26, 2024
quote

Can someone change the creation dates to past dates in document properties in Adobe acrobat Pro. Is it legal, what are the legal actions that adobe can take on that person. 


By @mk_4066

You do with your documents what you want. It's not Adobe's responsibility, to check document integrity. If you want to avoid getting a document changed, you need to password protect it (can be circumvented) or you need to digitally sign the document (if the document gets changed, the signature is no more valid).

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
try67
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 26, 2024

The only thing that can't be changed is the signing date of a digital signature, but if that signature was not applied by a third-party (like Adobe Sign) it's trivial to fake it being applied at any moment you want (by changing the system date first), so you can't even rely on that, either.

Abambo
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 26, 2024
quote

it's trivial to fake it being applied at any moment you want (by changing the system date first)


By @try67

That is the reason, why signing authorities are getting paid for the service. You can be your own signing authority, but that is of limited value (ie a company setting this up for signing internal documents).

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
MikelKlink
Participating Frequently
September 26, 2024
quote

Can someone change the creation dates to past dates in document properties in Adobe acrobat Pro. Is it legal, what are the legal actions that adobe can take on that person. 

 

It's trivial to change the creation date of a PDF, and it usually is not possible to determine that has happened (unless the PDF is digitally signed or protected by a MAC or that person did something wrong). I'm not sure if Adobe Acrobat is the best tool for that, a simple text editor usually works best.

There is no legal action one can take in general if someone did that. It's just some piece of metadata which may or may not be correct.

Only in a use case in which all participants agreed that field to have a legally relevant meaning, legal action may be possible by those participants against a participant who did change it to create wrong impressions. 

Details depend on the legal system that applies. You should consult a lawyer for details.