Conflicting advice on Redaction: Is it permanent or recoverable

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
June 19, 2023
2 replies
2286 views

I was reading this How to redact a PDF on a PC | Adobe Acrobat article from Adobe and I'm not sure now if its a permanent removal of text or not.

In one paragraph it says that redacted content cannot be recovered but then in the same document there is paragraph on how to unredact a pdf.

Can someone explain the difference & whether there are ways to permanently remove redacted content?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

"... then in the same document there is paragraph on how to unredact a pdf. "

This is possible before you apply the redactions.

M

mobcdiAuthor

Known Participant

Hi Bernd, I think that needs to be clarified in the article in that case. Also this Removing sensitive content from PDFs in Adobe Acrobat appears to indicate you could choose not to remove hidden text from the document during the sanitization process

Is there ways to test the redaction process has been completed successfully and not reversible ?

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

Info: Acrobat doesn't redact video or audio content.

Eric Dumas

Community Expert

My understanding is:

- highlight text to be redacted

- once the file is saved, the text redacted is gone for ever

It might be simplistic, but like with signatures, once the file is redacted, saved and closed: that's it, the characters are gone

M

mobcdiAuthor

Known Participant

Thats my hope as well but then the article mentions being able to select the hidden text so is there more needed to be done with the saved redaction document to fully apply the redaction?

M

mobcdiAuthor

Known Participant

For example there is an option in preferences in Documents Categories that mentions Hidden Information and the ability to remove it when closing or emailing documents

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