Making sensitive data invisible in a PDF

You want to share a PDF, but it contains data the recipient shouldn't see: a national insurance number, bank account number, address or salary. Drawing a black box over it is not enough: the text is still underneath and can be copied. That's a data protection risk. So use redaction instead: this actually removes the text from the PDF.

Step 1: edit the PDF

1. First, make a copy of the PDF so you keep the original.
2. Open the copy and choose Edit at the top right (or click Edit PDF).
3. Click the Redact tab (1).

Step 2: mark what needs to go

• By hand: click Mark for Redaction and drag over the text or area that needs to be removed.
• Search: click Find Redact, type in, for example, the national insurance number or a name, and mark all the places it's found in one go. Handy if something appears often.
• Whole pages: choose Redact Pages and enter the page numbers, for example 2, 5-7.

Marked sections get a frame around them. They're not removed yet: you can still remove the mark.

Step 3: apply

1. Click Apply Redactions.
2. Euro-Office warns you that the information will be permanently removed. Click Apply.
3. A black block now appears where the text was. The text underneath is truly gone.

Pitfalls

• You can't undo redaction once you've saved. So always work on a copy and keep the original in a safe place.
• Also check what you can't see: does the name also appear in the file name, the document title or a comment? Remove comments and give the file a neutral name.
• With a scanned PDF (a photo of paper), searching won't find anything, as there's no text. In that case, mark it by hand instead.
• If you then send the PDF by email or link, only share the redacted copy.