How to mask sensitive information in a pdf file?
I have a pdf file and want to mask some sensitive information in it such as social security numbers. Can this be done, without having to use paid tools? Better yet, without having to download anything?
asked Jul 26 '12 at 19:26
morpheusmorpheus
131119
add a comment |
I have a pdf file and want to mask some sensitive information in it such as social security numbers. Can this be done, without having to use paid tools? Better yet, without having to download anything?
asked Jul 26 '12 at 19:26
morpheusmorpheus
131119
2
Adobe Acobat has a tool for this.
– Martin Schröder
Jul 26 '12 at 23:01
add a comment |
I have a pdf file and want to mask some sensitive information in it such as social security numbers. Can this be done, without having to use paid tools? Better yet, without having to download anything?
asked Jul 26 '12 at 19:26
morpheusmorpheus
131119
I have a pdf file and want to mask some sensitive information in it such as social security numbers. Can this be done, without having to use paid tools? Better yet, without having to download anything?
asked Jul 26 '12 at 19:26
morpheusmorpheus
131119
asked Jul 26 '12 at 19:26
morpheusmorpheus
131119
asked Jul 26 '12 at 19:26
morpheusmorpheus
131119
asked Jul 26 '12 at 19:26
morpheusmorpheus
131119
asked Jul 26 '12 at 19:26
morpheusmorpheus
131119
131119
2
Adobe Acobat has a tool for this.
– Martin Schröder
Jul 26 '12 at 23:01
add a comment |
2
Adobe Acobat has a tool for this.
– Martin Schröder
Jul 26 '12 at 23:01
2
2
Adobe Acobat has a tool for this.
– Martin Schröder
Jul 26 '12 at 23:01
Adobe Acobat has a tool for this.
– Martin Schröder
Jul 26 '12 at 23:01
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
You could open it with gimp, paint over the sensitive information and then print/save to pdf again.
Or do the same thing with inkscape - however as mentioned in the comments this is less safe as the information may still be present in the saved file (even if you can't see it on the pdf).
Both are free tools and available on a variety of platforms.
More pdf editing options are covered in this question
edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17
Community♦
1
answered Jul 26 '12 at 19:28
jmetzjmetz
79237
6
Be very careful, depending on the tool, redaction may or may not be complete. Some of the PDF editing tools that offer redaction do cover up the information, but they do it in a layered fashion. So if you open the file in an editor again, even though you cannot see the redacted text, you can use the text selection tool to copy the text to the clipboard.
– EBGreen
Jul 26 '12 at 19:36
1
@EBGreen- Good point - from that point of viewgimpwould be preferred as the text is transformed into an image first, avoiding that caveat.
– jmetz
Jul 26 '12 at 19:42
@EBGreen Haha, I remember opening files with redacted text on a slow computer many years ago...you could briefly see the redacted text before the black bars were rendered.
– rob
Nov 23 '13 at 18:25
2
There was a scandal in Britain when somebody in a government department 'redacted' a sensitive MS Word document by highlighting in black all the text that they wanted to 'hide'. I think they said it 'identified a training need'.
– Michael Harvey
Jan 25 at 18:29
add a comment |
Source: I worked at a major multinational law firm as tech support.
If security is your goal and you need to complete erase any chance of the redacted information being retrieved, the only valid way to process any document for this goal is to either:
A. Black out the text and then print it.
-or-
B. Print the text and then black it out using a black marker.
-then-
Scan the blacked out document back into digital format, inspecting the document to confirm the scanned images will not reveal the hidden text through adjustments in color or contrast or brightness.
Any other method leaves the chance that metadata or other embedded information may still contain the redacted information.
Only by converting to an entirely non-digital media (physical print) and then back will you end up with a digital file guaranteed to be free of any chance the redacted information is still attached to the document somehow.
answered Jan 25 at 18:52
music2myearmusic2myear
31.7k858101
1
Absolutely right. Can't believe it took almost 7 years before this got posted. It's a good thing a spammer brought this thread to people's attention. Who says that spam isn't useful?
– fixer1234
Jan 25 at 22:56
add a comment |
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2 Answers
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active
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active
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You could open it with gimp, paint over the sensitive information and then print/save to pdf again.
Or do the same thing with inkscape - however as mentioned in the comments this is less safe as the information may still be present in the saved file (even if you can't see it on the pdf).
Both are free tools and available on a variety of platforms.
More pdf editing options are covered in this question
edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17
Community♦
1
answered Jul 26 '12 at 19:28
jmetzjmetz
79237
6
Be very careful, depending on the tool, redaction may or may not be complete. Some of the PDF editing tools that offer redaction do cover up the information, but they do it in a layered fashion. So if you open the file in an editor again, even though you cannot see the redacted text, you can use the text selection tool to copy the text to the clipboard.
– EBGreen
Jul 26 '12 at 19:36
1
@EBGreen- Good point - from that point of viewgimpwould be preferred as the text is transformed into an image first, avoiding that caveat.
– jmetz
Jul 26 '12 at 19:42
@EBGreen Haha, I remember opening files with redacted text on a slow computer many years ago...you could briefly see the redacted text before the black bars were rendered.
– rob
Nov 23 '13 at 18:25
2
There was a scandal in Britain when somebody in a government department 'redacted' a sensitive MS Word document by highlighting in black all the text that they wanted to 'hide'. I think they said it 'identified a training need'.
– Michael Harvey
Jan 25 at 18:29
add a comment |
You could open it with gimp, paint over the sensitive information and then print/save to pdf again.
Or do the same thing with inkscape - however as mentioned in the comments this is less safe as the information may still be present in the saved file (even if you can't see it on the pdf).
Both are free tools and available on a variety of platforms.
More pdf editing options are covered in this question
edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17
Community♦
1
answered Jul 26 '12 at 19:28
jmetzjmetz
79237
6
Be very careful, depending on the tool, redaction may or may not be complete. Some of the PDF editing tools that offer redaction do cover up the information, but they do it in a layered fashion. So if you open the file in an editor again, even though you cannot see the redacted text, you can use the text selection tool to copy the text to the clipboard.
– EBGreen
Jul 26 '12 at 19:36
1
@EBGreen- Good point - from that point of viewgimpwould be preferred as the text is transformed into an image first, avoiding that caveat.
– jmetz
Jul 26 '12 at 19:42
@EBGreen Haha, I remember opening files with redacted text on a slow computer many years ago...you could briefly see the redacted text before the black bars were rendered.
– rob
Nov 23 '13 at 18:25
2
There was a scandal in Britain when somebody in a government department 'redacted' a sensitive MS Word document by highlighting in black all the text that they wanted to 'hide'. I think they said it 'identified a training need'.
– Michael Harvey
Jan 25 at 18:29
add a comment |
You could open it with gimp, paint over the sensitive information and then print/save to pdf again.
Or do the same thing with inkscape - however as mentioned in the comments this is less safe as the information may still be present in the saved file (even if you can't see it on the pdf).
Both are free tools and available on a variety of platforms.
More pdf editing options are covered in this question
edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17
Community♦
1
answered Jul 26 '12 at 19:28
jmetzjmetz
79237
You could open it with gimp, paint over the sensitive information and then print/save to pdf again.
Or do the same thing with inkscape - however as mentioned in the comments this is less safe as the information may still be present in the saved file (even if you can't see it on the pdf).
Both are free tools and available on a variety of platforms.
More pdf editing options are covered in this question
edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17
Community♦
1
answered Jul 26 '12 at 19:28
jmetzjmetz
79237
edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17
Community♦
1
edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17
Community♦
1
edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17
Community♦
1
1
answered Jul 26 '12 at 19:28
jmetzjmetz
79237
answered Jul 26 '12 at 19:28
jmetzjmetz
79237
answered Jul 26 '12 at 19:28
jmetzjmetz
79237
79237
6
Be very careful, depending on the tool, redaction may or may not be complete. Some of the PDF editing tools that offer redaction do cover up the information, but they do it in a layered fashion. So if you open the file in an editor again, even though you cannot see the redacted text, you can use the text selection tool to copy the text to the clipboard.
– EBGreen
Jul 26 '12 at 19:36
1
@EBGreen- Good point - from that point of viewgimpwould be preferred as the text is transformed into an image first, avoiding that caveat.
– jmetz
Jul 26 '12 at 19:42
@EBGreen Haha, I remember opening files with redacted text on a slow computer many years ago...you could briefly see the redacted text before the black bars were rendered.
– rob
Nov 23 '13 at 18:25
2
There was a scandal in Britain when somebody in a government department 'redacted' a sensitive MS Word document by highlighting in black all the text that they wanted to 'hide'. I think they said it 'identified a training need'.
– Michael Harvey
Jan 25 at 18:29
add a comment |
6
Be very careful, depending on the tool, redaction may or may not be complete. Some of the PDF editing tools that offer redaction do cover up the information, but they do it in a layered fashion. So if you open the file in an editor again, even though you cannot see the redacted text, you can use the text selection tool to copy the text to the clipboard.
– EBGreen
Jul 26 '12 at 19:36
1
@EBGreen- Good point - from that point of viewgimpwould be preferred as the text is transformed into an image first, avoiding that caveat.
– jmetz
Jul 26 '12 at 19:42
@EBGreen Haha, I remember opening files with redacted text on a slow computer many years ago...you could briefly see the redacted text before the black bars were rendered.
– rob
Nov 23 '13 at 18:25
2
There was a scandal in Britain when somebody in a government department 'redacted' a sensitive MS Word document by highlighting in black all the text that they wanted to 'hide'. I think they said it 'identified a training need'.
– Michael Harvey
Jan 25 at 18:29
6
6
Be very careful, depending on the tool, redaction may or may not be complete. Some of the PDF editing tools that offer redaction do cover up the information, but they do it in a layered fashion. So if you open the file in an editor again, even though you cannot see the redacted text, you can use the text selection tool to copy the text to the clipboard.
– EBGreen
Jul 26 '12 at 19:36
Be very careful, depending on the tool, redaction may or may not be complete. Some of the PDF editing tools that offer redaction do cover up the information, but they do it in a layered fashion. So if you open the file in an editor again, even though you cannot see the redacted text, you can use the text selection tool to copy the text to the clipboard.
– EBGreen
Jul 26 '12 at 19:36
1
1
@EBGreen- Good point - from that point of view
gimp would be preferred as the text is transformed into an image first, avoiding that caveat.– jmetz
Jul 26 '12 at 19:42
@EBGreen- Good point - from that point of view
gimp would be preferred as the text is transformed into an image first, avoiding that caveat.– jmetz
Jul 26 '12 at 19:42
@EBGreen Haha, I remember opening files with redacted text on a slow computer many years ago...you could briefly see the redacted text before the black bars were rendered.
– rob
Nov 23 '13 at 18:25
@EBGreen Haha, I remember opening files with redacted text on a slow computer many years ago...you could briefly see the redacted text before the black bars were rendered.
– rob
Nov 23 '13 at 18:25
2
2
There was a scandal in Britain when somebody in a government department 'redacted' a sensitive MS Word document by highlighting in black all the text that they wanted to 'hide'. I think they said it 'identified a training need'.
– Michael Harvey
Jan 25 at 18:29
There was a scandal in Britain when somebody in a government department 'redacted' a sensitive MS Word document by highlighting in black all the text that they wanted to 'hide'. I think they said it 'identified a training need'.
– Michael Harvey
Jan 25 at 18:29
add a comment |
Source: I worked at a major multinational law firm as tech support.
If security is your goal and you need to complete erase any chance of the redacted information being retrieved, the only valid way to process any document for this goal is to either:
A. Black out the text and then print it.
-or-
B. Print the text and then black it out using a black marker.
-then-
Scan the blacked out document back into digital format, inspecting the document to confirm the scanned images will not reveal the hidden text through adjustments in color or contrast or brightness.
Any other method leaves the chance that metadata or other embedded information may still contain the redacted information.
Only by converting to an entirely non-digital media (physical print) and then back will you end up with a digital file guaranteed to be free of any chance the redacted information is still attached to the document somehow.
answered Jan 25 at 18:52
music2myearmusic2myear
31.7k858101
1
Absolutely right. Can't believe it took almost 7 years before this got posted. It's a good thing a spammer brought this thread to people's attention. Who says that spam isn't useful?
– fixer1234
Jan 25 at 22:56
add a comment |
Source: I worked at a major multinational law firm as tech support.
If security is your goal and you need to complete erase any chance of the redacted information being retrieved, the only valid way to process any document for this goal is to either:
A. Black out the text and then print it.
-or-
B. Print the text and then black it out using a black marker.
-then-
Scan the blacked out document back into digital format, inspecting the document to confirm the scanned images will not reveal the hidden text through adjustments in color or contrast or brightness.
Any other method leaves the chance that metadata or other embedded information may still contain the redacted information.
Only by converting to an entirely non-digital media (physical print) and then back will you end up with a digital file guaranteed to be free of any chance the redacted information is still attached to the document somehow.
answered Jan 25 at 18:52
music2myearmusic2myear
31.7k858101
1
Absolutely right. Can't believe it took almost 7 years before this got posted. It's a good thing a spammer brought this thread to people's attention. Who says that spam isn't useful?
– fixer1234
Jan 25 at 22:56
add a comment |
Source: I worked at a major multinational law firm as tech support.
If security is your goal and you need to complete erase any chance of the redacted information being retrieved, the only valid way to process any document for this goal is to either:
A. Black out the text and then print it.
-or-
B. Print the text and then black it out using a black marker.
-then-
Scan the blacked out document back into digital format, inspecting the document to confirm the scanned images will not reveal the hidden text through adjustments in color or contrast or brightness.
Any other method leaves the chance that metadata or other embedded information may still contain the redacted information.
Only by converting to an entirely non-digital media (physical print) and then back will you end up with a digital file guaranteed to be free of any chance the redacted information is still attached to the document somehow.
answered Jan 25 at 18:52
music2myearmusic2myear
31.7k858101
Source: I worked at a major multinational law firm as tech support.
If security is your goal and you need to complete erase any chance of the redacted information being retrieved, the only valid way to process any document for this goal is to either:
A. Black out the text and then print it.
-or-
B. Print the text and then black it out using a black marker.
-then-
Scan the blacked out document back into digital format, inspecting the document to confirm the scanned images will not reveal the hidden text through adjustments in color or contrast or brightness.
Any other method leaves the chance that metadata or other embedded information may still contain the redacted information.
Only by converting to an entirely non-digital media (physical print) and then back will you end up with a digital file guaranteed to be free of any chance the redacted information is still attached to the document somehow.
answered Jan 25 at 18:52
music2myearmusic2myear
31.7k858101
answered Jan 25 at 18:52
music2myearmusic2myear
31.7k858101
answered Jan 25 at 18:52
music2myearmusic2myear
31.7k858101
answered Jan 25 at 18:52
music2myearmusic2myear
31.7k858101
31.7k858101
1
Absolutely right. Can't believe it took almost 7 years before this got posted. It's a good thing a spammer brought this thread to people's attention. Who says that spam isn't useful?
– fixer1234
Jan 25 at 22:56
add a comment |
1
Absolutely right. Can't believe it took almost 7 years before this got posted. It's a good thing a spammer brought this thread to people's attention. Who says that spam isn't useful?
– fixer1234
Jan 25 at 22:56
1
1
Absolutely right. Can't believe it took almost 7 years before this got posted. It's a good thing a spammer brought this thread to people's attention. Who says that spam isn't useful?
– fixer1234
Jan 25 at 22:56
Absolutely right. Can't believe it took almost 7 years before this got posted. It's a good thing a spammer brought this thread to people's attention. Who says that spam isn't useful?
– fixer1234
Jan 25 at 22:56
add a comment |
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2
Adobe Acobat has a tool for this.
– Martin Schröder
Jul 26 '12 at 23:01