As the trend to digitize all paper assets continues, so does the push to digitize all the processes around these assets. One such process is redaction - removing sensitive or classified information from documents. While for some this may conjure up thoughts of old CIA documents filled with nothing but blacked out pages, there are actually many uses for redaction today beyond military and government. Many companies have a need to remove names, phone numbers, social security numbers, credit card numbers, etc. from documents that are being scanned in and/or released to the public or less privileged users - insurance companies, banks and legal firms are a few examples.
The process of digital redaction actually isn't that far from the old paper method:
Step 1. Find a folder with a big red stamp on it labeled "TOP SECRET"
Step 2. Make a copy of that document, since some folks still need to access the original contents
Step 3. Black out the text or pages you want to hide
Step 4. Release or distribute this new 'redacted' copy
So where does a solution like AutoVue come in? Well, we've really been doing all of these things for years!
1. With AutoVue's VueLink integration and iSDK, we can integrate to virtually any content management system and view documents of almost any format with a single click.
Finding the document and opening it in AutoVue: CHECK!
2. With AutoVue's markup capabilities, adding filled boxes (or other shapes) around certain text is a no-brainer. You can even leverage AutoVue's powerful APIs to automate the addition of markups over certain text or pre-defined regions using our APIs.
Black out the text you want to hide: CHECK!
3. With AutoVue's conversion capabilities, you can 'burn-in' the comments into a new file, either as a TIFF, JPEG or PDF document. Burning-in the redactions avoids slip-ups like the recent (well-publicized) TSA one.
Through our tight integrations, the newly created copies can be directly checked into the content management system with no manual intervention.
Make a copy of that document: CHECK!
4. Again, leveraging AutoVue's integrations, we can now define rules in the system based on a user's privileges. An 'authorized' user wishing to view the document from the repository will get exactly that - no redactions. An 'unauthorized' user, when requesting to view that same document, can get redirected to open the redacted copy of the same document.
Release or distribute the new 'redacted' copy: CHECK!
See this movie (WMV format, 2mins, 20secs, no audio) for a quick illustration of AutoVue's redaction capabilities. It shows how redactions can be added based on text searches, manual input or pre-defined templates/regions.
Let us know what you think in the comments. And remember - this is all in our flagship AutoVue product - no additional software required!
