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Before we get into the process of how to redact in Adobe or Redactable, let’s try to understand what it is, why it is important and how we are doing it.
Let’s consider this scenario where there is a business contract you need to share with your employees or with someone outside your company. These contracts may be legal documents, business contracts, or financial-related documents.
These documents have sensitive personal information that you don’t want to disclose. It could be very risky to share documents with that information on them.
But you still want to share the other details of this document. So, what can you do? It is simple- Just cut out the sensitive information and share it. This process of editing important information from a legal or personal document is called Redaction.
Now that you have understood what redaction is, the next question that comes to your mind is, what information is redactable? Any personal information that involves social security numbers, bank account numbers, birthdays, name of a minor, residential address, contact details, and so on.
This doesn’t just apply to business contracts, but also to every contract that is court, personal, business, tax, or financial-related. Just keep in mind to never share a document without redacting it first.
Nowadays, electronic filing of legal documents in court has become a mandatory process. Hence, you must redact a document before you share it.
Now, let’s dig more into why redaction is so necessary and what happens if you don’t follow it.
Let’s say you are a lawyer and you have important documents of your clients, and you want to share them with someone. As a lawyer, you are breaking your confidentiality agreement by leaking information about your client.
Anyone can steal this information to commit identity theft or any other form of fraud. This can be easily avoided just by a simple procedure. We hope that you understand how important this is now.
Let’s take a look at how it is done.
So when we say, “cut out” the sensitive information, what comes to your mind?
Is someone physically striking them out from the document with a pen? Well, that’s how it was done initially. A person was fully dedicated to striking out important information from hundreds of court documents. It seems like a hectic job, right? We understand why no one wants to do it. There are more downsides to this- once information has been stricken out, it can never be retrieved back.
Also, practically speaking, no matter how hard a person concentrates, they are bound to miss out on some information. And, this is a mistake that is unaffordable considering the huge consequences it can bring.
But don’t worry, it’s not like that anymore, thanks to technology. You can make a copy of the document and redact the copy digitally.
In this article, we will walk you through 2 ways of how it can be done online and a detailed comparison between both the software.
Let's start with Adobe.
How to redact your document using Adobe?
You must be familiar with the Adobe software but for those who aren't, let’s explain what it is and what wonders it can perform.
Adobe developed the transition for everything from paper to digital through the form of a PDF. As the acronym PDF says-it’s literally a Portable Document Format where you can carry this document anywhere digitally.
You can also scan, edit, sign, and share these documents with anyone easily. In short, they are a very well-established online document i.e. PDF management system.
Sure, it has other features and software applications that help with graphics and video creation, but here we are only going to focus on Adobe Acrobat.
This is a tool that exclusively deals with all the documents in a PDF format. And with that, it also has a feature where you can redact these documents.
Let us walk you through the process of how it’s done.
- First, launch Adobe Acrobat on your desktop or PC.
- Go to the Tools section and select the Redact option.
- Then choose the file you want to redact from the ‘Select a File’ option to locate it.
- From the Redaction drop-down menu, select the redaction type you want from the Mark.
- To redact words and graphics, you can choose the Texts & Images.
- And to edit out certain texts, click on ‘Find Text’ to find those words or phrases and then edit them out.
- To black out the entire page, click on the ‘Page’ option.
- After you’ve marked all the redactions you want on that page, select the ‘Apply’ option.
- Once your document has been redacted, save it as a new PDF so you can still have a copy of the original document.
- You must do this because once the paper is redacted, it permanently removes the content that is marked.
- You can also remove the invisible identifying information found in PDFs. To do this, choose the ‘Remove Hidden Information' option.
Now, let’s talk about the pros and cons:
Pros:
- You don’t have to follow the traditional technique anymore where you have to do it by hand.
- It’s easily portable and shareable without any risk.
- You can’t retrieve the redacted information after it is edited. It maintains privacy and eliminates fraud.
Cons:
- Though redaction is possible through this software, it is not the easiest way to be done.
- You have to individually select every piece of information that has to be redacted.
- This needs a keen eye for detail to cover every possible information that has to be redacted.
- It is a manual task and highly time-consuming
- It is again similar to doing it physically with a pen but in a digital format.
Then, how to make it easier? Don’t worry, we have got you covered.
Presenting Redactable - A redaction tool that actually works!
Here’s what Redactable does:
Personal information is very sensitive and needs to be secured. But, at the same time, we also understand that it is necessary to share some documents with various people for various purposes. During times like these, you might not be comfortable sharing your information with the court (if it’s a legal document) or with someone else.
Here’s where the brilliant idea of redaction comes into play. As explained before, redaction is the process of editing or cutting out essential pieces of information, text, numbers, or images from an important document so it becomes shareable.
Now you already know how hectic this process is. It’s easier to redact a single document or maybe a few but what if there are more than a few? You have to make sure to edit out every single piece of information that is important. While doing so, there is a huge chance that you might miss out on something.
So, to avoid it, we have the best tool for you!
Redactable helps you redact documents from any browser. It’s simple and easy to use. We use AI to identify information that is sensitive like your social security number, bank account, images, contact details, residential addresses, and more.
Once your information is detected, redactable permanently redacts those texts or images on your documents. You don’t have to do anything but let our tool do its magic. Redactable takes only 2.5 minutes to redact 10 pages. Isn’t that awesome?
Imagine all the time you can save redacting your documents. This way, you can increase your productivity and reduce errors all at the same time!
And, the best part is that you can redact multiple documents. It’s the tool that actually works! All you have to do is sit back and relax so we can take care of the redaction for you.
Let us walk you through how it works.
How to redact your document using Redactable?
- Select and upload the document you want to redact on our platform.
- Once that is done, our Redaction Wizard uses its AI to find sensitive information that has to be redacted on its own.
- Of all the information, select the ones you want to redact. After this process, all your information is automatically redacted.
- And, voila! Your redacted documents are ready to be downloaded and used.
You also get a court-approved certificate with every document you redact. This way you can be assured that your redaction is totally valid and applicable everywhere.
It’s time for the ultimate comparison that you’ve been waiting for in this article
Redactable vs Adobe: Which one is better?
We have looked at how each of them works individually. Now, let’s take a look at these tools side by side.
Redactable
Redaction is done using AI
It takes 2.5 minutes to redact 10 pages
Human error does not happen
Increases productivity
Highly effective
Court approved Redaction Certificate with every document
Adobe
Redaction is done manually
It varies from person to person and may take more than 20 minutes to redact 10 pages
Human error may happen
Productivity may decrease with time
May be effective depending on the person doing it
There is no certificate involved
If you aren’t aware, today, the publication of redacted disclosure data is still expensive and not to mention- highly time-consuming.
One of the great benefits of document-level redaction technology is that sensitive material could be automatically redacted at a cost that is way lesser than what organizations are spending these days.
Using an AI-powered tool like Redactable will drastically improve the quality and accuracy of redacting disclosed information as well.
It will continue to take some time for organizations to realize the full potential that this technology has to offer, but given its benefits, that adoption will happen faster than most people would think.
That's why we created Redactable: an easy-to-use, straightforward app that does just that. If you ever need to redact information from a PDF, we think you'll agree that Redactable is your best option.
Click here to try it out for yourself!
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