4 ms·

To explain what this is: The EU mistakenly uploaded a censored version of the contract earlier today where some blacked out parts could be reconstructed using P

by hannob 6y ago

To explain what this is: The EU mistakenly uploaded a censored version of the contract earlier today where some blacked out parts could be reconstructed using PDF metadata. This version has those included in red.

raverbashing 6y ago
Not sure if it was the EU or AZ that did the (failed) redaction. (Yes, despite the fact that it was published on an EU website) Anyway it seems that orgs keep falling for the "PDF redaction" caveats
- vinay427 6y ago
  To be fair, I've grown paranoid about PDF metadata and redactions, so I prefer taking screenshots and making a new PDF out of those as long as the document is only a few pages in length, or using imagemagick or similar to flatten it. I haven't found an easier way to be absolutely sure that my annotations are permanent, and this metadata issue is perhaps even trickier.
  - toast0 6y ago
    Print, review, and scan is probably easier than screenshotting, if you have the equipment.
    - tormeh 6y ago
      That this is the state of things is pretty amazing
      - ur-whale 6y ago
        PDF is a shitty format. As proof, I offer: can't grep on it. Which, BTW, if it was possible, would have prevented this mess.
        statquontrarian 6y ago
        Linux has a pdfgrep command which works pretty well (unless the PDF has images of text).
        ur-whale 6y ago
        Unless the PDF has every letter placed by independent PostScript like commands or - worse - text has been imported from an SVG file. pdfgrep is at best probabilistic and I stand by my comment..
        flal_ 6y ago
        Agreed. I work on a solution for extracting data from random documents ( invoices, payslips, you name it ) for natives pdf in the wild ( not scans) we gave up : and just rasterize to send to an OCR software... It's also probabilistic, but way more reliable.
        addandsubtract 6y ago
        Spotlight can also search within PDFs
        Aerroon 6y ago
        And yet it is the format documents are in. Government websites are full of PDFs.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
  - exhilaration 6y ago
    If you have a scanner, the easiest way is to take the redacted version provided by your attorneys, print it, then scan it through a document feeder to PDF. Nobody's reconstructing anything from that.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

by hannob 6y ago

raverbashing 6y ago

Not sure if it was the EU or AZ that did the (failed) redaction. (Yes, despite the fact that it was published on an EU website) Anyway it seems that orgs keep falling for the "PDF redaction" caveats

vinay427 6y ago
To be fair, I've grown paranoid about PDF metadata and redactions, so I prefer taking screenshots and making a new PDF out of those as long as the document is only a few pages in length, or using imagemagick or similar to flatten it. I haven't found an easier way to be absolutely sure that my annotations are permanent, and this metadata issue is perhaps even trickier.
- toast0 6y ago
  Print, review, and scan is probably easier than screenshotting, if you have the equipment.
  - tormeh 6y ago
    That this is the state of things is pretty amazing
    - ur-whale 6y ago
      PDF is a shitty format. As proof, I offer: can't grep on it. Which, BTW, if it was possible, would have prevented this mess.
      - statquontrarian 6y ago
        Linux has a pdfgrep command which works pretty well (unless the PDF has images of text).
        ur-whale 6y ago
        Unless the PDF has every letter placed by independent PostScript like commands or - worse - text has been imported from an SVG file. pdfgrep is at best probabilistic and I stand by my comment..
        flal_ 6y ago
        Agreed. I work on a solution for extracting data from random documents ( invoices, payslips, you name it ) for natives pdf in the wild ( not scans) we gave up : and just rasterize to send to an OCR software... It's also probabilistic, but way more reliable.
        addandsubtract 6y ago
        Spotlight can also search within PDFs
      - Aerroon 6y ago
        And yet it is the format documents are in. Government websites are full of PDFs.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- exhilaration 6y ago
  If you have a scanner, the easiest way is to take the redacted version provided by your attorneys, print it, then scan it through a document feeder to PDF. Nobody's reconstructing anything from that.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]