6 ms·

I just go solid opaque bar. Way easier to do and harder to screw up.

tablespoon 5y ago
> I just go solid opaque bar. Way easier to do and harder to screw up. There may be graphic design reasons you don't want to do that. A big black redaction bar isn't much of an illustration.
johnfn 5y ago
Amusingly enough, people have even screwed this up. I recall some government agency trying to censor data with a black bar, but the problem was that the data was in a SVG-like document, so people could just delete the bars from the document and see the apparently-censored text.
- ghostly_s 5y ago
  This has happened with PDFs many, many times.
- franga2000 5y ago
  The EU has redacted PDFs this way a number of times, but I don't think anything truly sensitive ever leaked.
- tait 5y ago
  I remember a version of this happening with PDFs
  - lelandfe 5y ago
    Yep - Apple wound up adding a “Redact” tool to Preview.app for PDFs, likely in response to all the people who just drew shapes over selectable sensitive text. https://eclecticlight.co/2020/12/11/how-effective-and-safe-is-previews-redaction-tool/ https://eclecticlight.co/2020/12/11/how-effective-and-safe-i...
- rincebrain 5y ago
  I believe the US government did this at least once, by implementing the black bars in a PDF as a separate object, so the unredacted item was intact in the files they shared. Whoops.
- eeegnu 5y ago
  It would be funny to place fake data behind the removable bars for tech savvy people to find.
  - geoduck14 5y ago
    > It would be funny to place fake data behind the removable bars for tech savvy people to find. Tech savvy people, but also journalists https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/10/missouri-gov-calls-journalist-who-found-security-flaw-a-hacker-threatens-to-sue/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/10/missouri-gov-cal...
- bayindirh 5y ago
  I remember that. Unredacted versions were also circulated.
- mjevans 5y ago
  I built a redaction process for a small company once. My critical security step was rendering out the PDF as individual flat image files, then re-assembling it like a traditionally photo-copied document. That way the loss-full operation is enforced, at the cost of forcing end users to OCR unsearchable image-scan (like) PDFs.
  - hyper_dynamics 5y ago
    It's the only way to be sure!
    - raxxorrax 5y ago
      You could replace the censored text with gibberish before blacking it out. Or some secret message for QAnons to find.
    - pvillano 5y ago
      well if you had an open (.odf) or openable (.doc≈xml) format you could replace strings and be sure something was gone
- stronglikedan 5y ago
  > just delete the bars I think you mean "illegally hack the black bars".

> I just go solid opaque bar. Way easier to do and harder to screw up. There may be graphic design reasons you don't want to do that. A big black redaction bar isn't much of an illustration.

johnfn 5y ago

Amusingly enough, people have even screwed this up. I recall some government agency trying to censor data with a black bar, but the problem was that the data was in a SVG-like document, so people could just delete the bars from the document and see the apparently-censored text.

ghostly_s 5y ago
This has happened with PDFs many, many times.
franga2000 5y ago
The EU has redacted PDFs this way a number of times, but I don't think anything truly sensitive ever leaked.
tait 5y ago
I remember a version of this happening with PDFs
- lelandfe 5y ago
  Yep - Apple wound up adding a “Redact” tool to Preview.app for PDFs, likely in response to all the people who just drew shapes over selectable sensitive text. https://eclecticlight.co/2020/12/11/how-effective-and-safe-is-previews-redaction-tool/ https://eclecticlight.co/2020/12/11/how-effective-and-safe-i...
rincebrain 5y ago
I believe the US government did this at least once, by implementing the black bars in a PDF as a separate object, so the unredacted item was intact in the files they shared. Whoops.
eeegnu 5y ago
It would be funny to place fake data behind the removable bars for tech savvy people to find.
- geoduck14 5y ago
  > It would be funny to place fake data behind the removable bars for tech savvy people to find. Tech savvy people, but also journalists https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/10/missouri-gov-calls-journalist-who-found-security-flaw-a-hacker-threatens-to-sue/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/10/missouri-gov-cal...
bayindirh 5y ago
I remember that. Unredacted versions were also circulated.
mjevans 5y ago
I built a redaction process for a small company once. My critical security step was rendering out the PDF as individual flat image files, then re-assembling it like a traditionally photo-copied document. That way the loss-full operation is enforced, at the cost of forcing end users to OCR unsearchable image-scan (like) PDFs.
- hyper_dynamics 5y ago
  It's the only way to be sure!
  - raxxorrax 5y ago
    You could replace the censored text with gibberish before blacking it out. Or some secret message for QAnons to find.
  - pvillano 5y ago
    well if you had an open (.odf) or openable (.doc≈xml) format you could replace strings and be sure something was gone
stronglikedan 5y ago
> just delete the bars I think you mean "illegally hack the black bars".