Redaction Check: Prove the Text Is Really Gone

A redaction mark is a promise that the content beneath it has been destroyed. Verifying that promise takes three checks, and the last one is the one most often skipped.

Why this comes up

Sensitive values rarely appear only once: the same account number can sit in a table, a footnote and the document title. A mark covers one rectangle, while the file can carry the same string in places a reader never sees.

Check before you run it

• Search the saved copy for the value you removed. Open the download and use the viewer's search for the exact name, number or address. If it still returns a hit, the mark missed a copy or the file is not the redacted one.
• Review every mark Smart detect proposes. Detection finds card numbers, emails, phone numbers, IDs, IBANs and labelled names, but it proposes rather than decides. Add marks for context it cannot know and remove marks that cover ordinary text.
• Clear the metadata separately. Redaction removes page content, not document properties. A name in the author or title field survives the marks, so remove all metadata when the file must travel clean.

When to reach for it

• A contract goes to a third party with figures removed. Mark the rates and totals, apply, then search the download for each figure before it is sent.
• A file must be shared without a person's details. Check the body, the headers and the properties, because the same name can appear in all three.

One question we get

Can I run Redact from the API?

Yes — POST /v1/redact-pdf is live and costs 5 credits. Send the PDF with a bearer key; apply=1 returns the redacted file. See the API page for the request fields.

Where it fits

The tools people usually open next to Redact PDF:

• Unlock — Remove restrictions and password from PDF files
• Protect — Protect file with password and permissions
• Deskew — Automatically straighten and deskew scanned PDF pages.

Every tool works on a copy, so the original file is never touched. Uploads are stored under an unguessable id and deleted automatically two hours after you last open them; nothing is listed, shared or indexed. More on the security page.