Hide Information on PDF: What is the Best way to Safeguard your Privacy?

In the Information Age, data is everything. 

Everything from legislative documents to financial records and business analytics relies on it. 

While PDFs have been the easiest to send and view documents on, there is no doubt about the anxiety of sharing material containing classified information. You don’t want all the information on your PDF to be viewed publicly, so what do you do?

Instead of putting a simple black bar on top of select parts and hoping for the best, here is how to hide information on PDF securely and never worry about data leaks again.

Why is Redacting PDFs Important?

Your PDF can often contain information you do not want to reach different parties without your knowledge. Information like social security numbers, bank account numbers, company statistics, etc., are things people want to limit visibility on.

PDF redaction is useful when sharing company documents with clients to keep their eyes on the relevant information only. Redacting also helps hide information on PDFs to help you follow legal compliance.

Attorneys need to put extreme care when it comes to censoring data. Safeguarding PII (Personally Identifiable Information), adhering to FOIA and GDPR guidelines, and following HIPAA in the healthcare sector are all important factors that lawyers need to consider.

You can further control how people access your PDF by disabling printing and copying, password protection, and encrypting PDFs are viable ways to protect sensitive information.

However, redaction lets you share your files without worrying about who snoops on your private information. You can permanently block out data, making it impossible to be recovered.

Common Mistakes to avoid when Redacting PDFs

Now that we understand why redaction is your best option to hide information on PDF, here are a few errors people make while doing so:

1. Not removing the metadata from PDF files means anybody can view and restore them. Metadata from word processors can bring back version history, and by extension, the hidden text even if it has been re-saved.

2. Blacking out certain sections or changing the font color does not equal proper redaction! The original text and metadata remain. Someone with basic technical expertise can erase the overlaying blockers and access the text.

3. Images, diagrams, and other visualizations also count as information. Make sure to redact them alongside the relevant textual information.

4. Not checking the PDF properties to ensure it doesn’t contain sensitive information. 

5. Free redaction tools might look like the perfect solution but present other long-term problems. The redaction can be reversed as most free tools do not provide absolute security. Free redactions tools can also make it hard to edit the original file.

For this reason, a premium solution like Redactable is highly effective. Their cloud-based platform enables you to redact sensitive information permanently and with ease.  

PDF Redaction Best Practices 

Redacting sensitive data can initially seem monumental, but the right tool and preparation can save you time and resources.

Follow these steps to ensure you hide information on PDF more effectively:

• Keep track of all the changes you make to PDF files. You can also have a separate document to list the information you need to remove. 

• Scanning the PDF document will create a new file which will be impossible to piece together information.

• Proofreading the final document is an important step, as your new document needs to make sense to the reader after the redactions have been made. Furthermore, this allows you to review if you have missed any sensitive information to redact. 

• Finally, use a redaction software you can trust.

Why use Redaction Software?

While we move towards more significant technological advancements, the threat of cyberattacks and data breaches gets worse with every step. Unauthorized access can risk a company’s growth, leak personal identity, hurt finances and reputation, and much more. 

Redacting PDF files that contain confidential information is an important precautionary measure because of these conditions. When you try to hide sensitive data manually without the help of effective redaction software, there are a few critical problems that you will eventually face:

• Removing confidential data without a proper redaction tool can often result in not hiding all traces of the selected data or leaving the redaction incomplete. 

• Manual redaction can leave room for error through inconsistent redaction. Forgetting to censor every instance of the data can result in a severe data breach.

• Preserving the original document containing the confidential data for future use is important. Improper redaction can lead to you losing this information permanently.

• Large or complex documents need more workforce to redact effectively and consistently. Manual redaction can drain resources and introduce more room for errors.

But what advantages do you receive from using a redaction software like Redactable?

Redaction software can sometimes automatically detect classified information and completely redact it from the document so that no trace remains. You can forego the manual effort of reviewing the document.

Automated tools also erase the possibility of errors and oversight, as the tools can scan the entire document to make sure that every instance of the classified data is removed. 

Organizations dealing with several documents get to save money and resources, which would have been spent on outsourcing and collaborating with third parties to do the same task. 

A robust redaction software gives you accurate and consistent data scrubbing to safeguard sensitive information and save you from cyberattacks and legal repercussions.

Protect Important Data with Redactable

Redactable is a cloud-based redaction tool designed to help users safeguard their privacy and hide information on PDF documents with no hassle. It employs Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing to automatically detect and hide information on PDF files.

It is an excellent software to automate redaction on classified documents for various industries, including PDF, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc. 

Features

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• The intuitive Redaction Wizard guides you through the entire process.
• You can choose “Manual” redaction, where the One-Click Redaction enables you to redact with no fuss. 
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and NLP help increase the software’s effectiveness.
• The strong AI technology detects confidential data and terms to redact automatically. It ensures your redactions stay consistent throughout the document.
• You can choose to redact with options like “Search Text,” “Auto,” and “Patterns.” Automation provides complete redactions and removes the chances of an unintended data leak. These options help save resources by bypassing the need for manual work. 

• Redaction Workflow streamlines task management to set up and work on projects. The cloud-based browser platform allows collaborators to join and redact simultaneously for larger, more complex projects. 

• Redactable provides enhanced security and privacy with each redaction scrubbing metadata and document elements which can compromise the identity of the redactor or the confidential data removed. 

• Third-party integrations to Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box help you import and export files easily, so you don’t have to navigate several interfaces. 

• The cloud-based browser platform means no download is needed to start redacting sensitive data on PDF files.

How to Redact with Redactable

Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can use the Redactable Redaction tool: 

1. Open the Redactable Website 

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2. Add a PDF File.

3. Select the Text and Images You want to Redact.(Wizard can help you Auto redact)

4. Select “Finalize Redaction”.

5. Download New PDF and save the file.

Pricing

Redactable has 3 pricing plans depending on the number of documents and individual organizational needs. 

Pro

$39/mo.

• Redact 40 documents per month
• No page volume cap
• Search Text Redaction
• AI-powered Redaction Features
• Built-In OCR
• Built-in integrations
• Collaborative redaction
• 24/7 Support
  

Pro Plus

$89/mo.

• Redact 150 documents per month 
• No page volume cap
• Search Text Redaction
• AI-powered Redaction Features
• Built-In OCR
• Built-in integrations
• Collaborative redactions
• Manage redaction workflow
• 24/7 Support
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Enterprise

Get a Quote

Additionally, Redactable comes with annual plans for Pro ($375/year) and Pro Plus ($854/year) pricing plans. You can try out their features risk-free with their free trial.

Conclusion

Redactable provides professionals of all industries the tools they need to redact and hide information on PDF files that they don’t want unauthorized parties to get their hands on. 

The rising threat of data leaks makes it important to safeguard your privacy and save yourself the damage costs due to one. With Redactable, teams of various technical expertise can collaborate in real-time to ensure your sensitive data stays hidden.

Try out Redactable’s cutting-edge solutions risk-free with their free trial and experience the power of accurate data redaction power by innovative AI technology.