Redactions

Location:  Document Viewer >> Redaction

General

Users can modify the PDFs opened in the Document Viewer page by redacting portions of the file for privilege, confidentiality, or other privacy reasons. Redacting a document in LEP does not just obscure the image or text, but digitally removes sections of the file and re-OCRs the associated text layer so that viewers of the redacted version can no longer see or search for the redacted portions. Users can either redact documents directly within LEP or manually upload documents that have already been redacted (if users redact using another tool and upload, users should ensure that the text portion of the PDF file has also been removed). 

**Currently, the redaction feature does not include the redaction of metadata. Any privileged or confidential information within the metadata should be addressed prior to production.

Accessing the Redaction Editor

All redactions are made and edited right in the Doc Viewer. To access the Redaction Editor, click on the REDACTION view in the Doc Viewer.

Click "Redaction" in the upper right and then click the blue ellipses to display the following: 

Redacting Documents in LEP

Go to the REDACTION view in the Doc Viewer and click 'Generate Images' to image the document. Once the image to be redacted has populated in the Redaction Editor, users can use the mouse to draw a box around the text or graphic to be redacted. Redactions populate in a list on the right side of the screen. Within that list you can enter the desired redaction text, choose the color of each redaction (Black or White), and delete individual redactions. If all of the information on the displayed page needs to be redacted, users can select 'Redact Entire Page', and the full page redaction will populate at the top of the list.

Additionally, redactions made within the editor can be resized or moved. To resize a redaction, drag any of the four corners of the redaction box to resize as desired. To move a redaction box, click the middle of the redaction and move it to the desired location. 

Redacting Documents in LEP

Go to the REDACTION view in the Doc Viewer and click 'Generate Images' to image the document. Once the image to be redacted has populated in the Redaction Editor, users can use the mouse to draw a box around the text or graphic to be redacted. Redactions populate in a list on the right side of the screen. Within that list you can enter the desired redaction text, choose the color of each redaction (Black or White), and delete individual redactions. If all of the information on the displayed page needs to be redacted, users can select 'Redact Entire Page', and the full page redaction will populate at the top of the list.

Additionally, redactions made within the editor can be resized or moved. To resize a redaction, drag any of the four corners of the redaction box to resize as desired. To move a redaction box, click the middle of the redaction and move it to the desired location. Redaction entries within the list will automatically reorder themselves so they correspond to their location on the page (moving from top to bottom, left to right). Additionally, hovering over a redaction on the document or in the list will cause the redaction box to be outlined, and the redaction entry to be highlighted. Black redactions are shown as darker boxes, and white redactions are shown as an outline only. The M next to each redaction in the list denotes that the redaction was made manually in the editor. This is done to distinguish between redactions made within the editor, and redactions generated via the Auto Redaction tool. Redactions made by the Auto Redaction tool are denoted in the list by an A.

By default, redactions are black in color. To change the color of a redaction, just click on the circle and select your preference. Your color choice and redaction text will perpetuate until changed.

Once all redactions are made, click SAVE. Alternatively, clicking the cancel icon (located to the right of the Save dropdown arrow) will undo any changes made since the last time SAVE was clicked.

Please note that users should expect some delay when creating a redaction image, especially if redacting large PDF documents, as this is a resource intensive process. A new, redacted version of a PDF is being created and re-OCRed in the background to ensure the complete elimination of the redacted content. Users may proceed to the next document if desired.

Producing Redacted Documents

Productions automatically replace any documents with their redacted versions in the PDF, TIFF, TEXT, and ORIGINALS sub-folders. Please note, this redaction feature does not redact metadata. As such, any privileged or confidential information will need to be addressed prior to production.

Working With Redacted Documents

From the Browse and Search pages the user can (i) display the built-in field IsRedacted, or (ii) add the Redacted field to the filter to view only those documents that have been redacted.

Uploading Manually Redacted Documents

Users can upload their own redacted versions of documents created using a local redaction editor (e.g., Adobe Acrobat Professional). Care should be taken to ensure that the users' local PDF redaction editor removes image and text layers of redacted text, and does not just obscure the image. To create redacted documents outside of LEP, users should do the following:

Searching for Personally Identifiable Information (PII) To Be Redacted.  

For more information see Personally Identifiable Information.