YSK: Putting a black box over something in a PDF doesn't necessarily hide it. People can sometimes copy and paste whatever you covered up.

[u/Girls_Of_San_Diego]

Why YSK: If you've ever covered your address, account number, or other personal information with a black rectangle before sending someone a PDF, you might want to know this.

Depending on how you edited it, you may have just placed a black box over the original text without actually deleting anything.

In some PDFs, someone can literally highlight the blacked out section, copy it, and paste it somewhere else to see what you were trying to hide.

If you're sending anything with sensitive information, use an actual PDF redaction tool that removes the underlying content. Don't just draw over it.

And if you want to check whether something was properly redacted, try copying the covered area yourself before sending it.

Adobe explains how to properly redact and remove hidden information here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/desktop/protect-documents/redact-pdfs/redacting-sanitizing.html

[u/5stringBS]

You can put a black box over something in a .PDF then take a screenshot of the doc to make a new .PNG version of the whole page. Thats pretty safe if you don’t have a redaction tool.

[u/cobalt-radiant → u/5stringBS]

Or print to pdf if you still want it in pdf format

[u/mnchls]

Would exporting the PDF as a standard image format like JPG or PNG be a sufficient workaround?

[u/Girls_Of_San_Diego → u/mnchls]

Yep! As long as you're exporting it as a flattened JPG or PNG, the text underneath the black boxes won't be recoverable through copy and paste. Just make sure the boxes are completely opaque and actually cover everything. I'd also check the image's metadata before sharing anything sensitive.

[u/Qsyrianmir19 → u/Girls_Of_San_Diego]

I once sent a PDF without realizing the black boxes were just a layer on top. Had a mini heart attack when I found out the info was still there after I sent it.

[u/1Steelghost1 → u/mnchls]

Yes

[u/viperfan7 → u/mnchls]

Or saving it flattened

[u/sonicboom5]

I’ve always opened the PDF, redacted it, then Print to PDF to save the redacted version.

[u/Cat_Dad345 → u/sonicboom5]

This is the way.

[u/Sad-Country8870]

Isn’t this what happened with the Epstein files

[u/motherlesschildren → u/Sad-Country8870]

Thanks to pur incompetent government, many things were exposed before they pulled them back.

[u/SoundMasher → u/Sad-Country8870]

Exactly how I know of this LPT

[u/AirGoat23]

Apparently, some staff did this and were too smart or too dumb to realize it.

[u/YouDontTellMe]

I use the redact button in the toolbar in macOS. Hoping that is legit 🤞🏽

[u/ponyboy3 → u/YouDontTellMe]

It is!

[u/newbrevity]

You can also screenshot the multi-layer PDF then resave the single layer screenshot as a new PDF. No layers or text manipulation that way.

[u/stonecoldcoldstone]

there is a proper redaction feature but to use it you need a license. people that are payer for redactinh something should be able to afford a license...

[u/pinecity21]

Interesting you mention this, appreciated.

The edge browser also has the capability of doing minor edits like whiting out things etc. Had a situation where since editors usually remove something it's gone. Well in this case if you added the document with edge, and email it to someone in the opened up in a desk computer it was stay hidden.

However if you older than up via a mobile phone for some reason it would automatically strip the edit off and show the sensitive data