Redaction is a task in which a portion of an image or a document is intentionally concealed to prevent disclosure of specific portions. This is often done to avoid production of privileged or confidential materials. Specific reasons for producing redacted documents in a legal matter may include such reasons as attorney/client privilege, medical privilege, non-relevant, non-responsive, or proprietary information.  Redaction rules are specific and are required to be followed carefully. Information that has been redacted may be challenged in a court of law, and the user may be required by a judge to produce another version of the document with all or a portion of the redacted information revealed.

Electronic redaction is done on the computer. The user brings up a specific page of a scanned document and, using a specific tool in the image retrieval system, creates a black, white, clear, or colored mark that hides specific information. This mark is either “burned” into the image, or is created as an “overlay” and stored separately from the original image. When producing the image, the retrieval system will ask the user whether the image should be produced with or without redactions. A professional retrieval system will ensure that all redacted images are produced with the redaction burned into the produced image, so that no one receiving the image can remove the redaction and see what was concealed beneath.

Manual redaction is done by a member of the legal team using a multiple step process. Usually, a photocopy of an original document or a printed version of the scanned image is used. The user takes a specific type of thick, black marker, and “colors” over the specific information to be redacted. (Not all markers are good for this process; some allow information to show through the marking.) The user must be careful to not mark too much nor too little of the information. Once the marking is complete, a second photocopy or second scan (of the redacted document) is made.