5 Things You Need to Know About Document Redaction

Document redaction is a fairly obscure field in the world of law and healthcare. Here are five things you must know about document redaction if you work in law, are a healthcare professional, or are interested in any other field requiring sensitivity around confidential information.

 1. What is document redaction?

Document redaction is the process of removing or covering sensitive information from a document. As a result, the document can be used and safely distributed. This includes scrubbing the document of personal information, social security numbers, information protected under HIPAA, financial data, etc. Essentially, anything else that can be used to commit fraud or expose private information must be removed.

 2. Is my document digital or hard copy?

Digital documents give you the option to redact information permanently or in a recoverable format. When redacting digital documents, it is important to make sure information is completely redacted. This means ensuring metadata and other hidden code are completely removed as well. Whether you are redacting from digital or hard copies, you must make sure that you are redacting the right information by double-checking, as redaction can be permanent.

 3. Are there multiple copies of the document?

Making sure the same information is redacted from all copies is vital. However, in certain instances it can be easy to forget to redact information from multiple copies. For example, when you have hard copies, a digital and a hard copy, or several digital copies. Being aware of how many copies exist and what needs to be redacted is a cornerstone of redaction.

 4. What method of redaction will you use?

When redacting documents, you will need to decide whether you are planning on using a manual or an automatic method of redaction. There are many kinds of software that will allow you to manually redact information. Conversely, other software allows you to select a portion of the information that you want automatically removed from the document. Both methods have their advantages depending on the situation.

 5. Will you be outsourcing redaction?

Some documents can be redacted in-house. In many cases, though, document redaction is a complicated, tedious, and lengthy process that can cost a lot of employee hours. Someone who is experienced and has an efficient, dedicated team in document redaction is needed in these situations. This can remove the burden of making sure all sensitive information is completely and correctly removed or covered in the document. It will also reduce the cost of staff training, man-hours, and redaction software, and you will be freed up to carry out other important aspects of your job.

Hill Redaction Services is a full-service digital document redaction firm that specializes in rush orders or document redaction that is simply not able to be done in-house. This means that we will take care of all of the aspects of document redaction that must be considered for you so that you can continue with other important tasks worry-free. Please contact us at our contact form here, or call us at (470) 893-2168 if you would like to inquire about our document redaction services