Redacting Sensitive Information from PDF File

The Court has entered General Order 168 to assist in the implementation of the Judicial Conference's Privacy Policy and the December 1 changes to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure.
Filers - not the clerk - are responsible for redacting Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers, such as dates of birth, financial account numbers, and names of minor children in documents they file with the court.
The below is information and instructions on how to Redact Sensitive Information from PDF files.

Manual Redacting

Before scanning the original document to a PDF format, the sensitive information that appears on the printed page can be manually marked with a broad, dark highlighting marker to hide the sensitive information. After the entire document is thoroughly checked and marked, the document can be scanned to a PDF format.
Layers in PDF's
Information can be stored on different layers of a PDF. The layers that appear in the PDF are based on the layers created in the original application. You cannot create layers in Acrobat; however, you can examine layers and show or hide the content associated with each layer using the Layers icon in the navigation pane. To ensure that sensitive information is not revealed if layers are examined, you can "flatten" the PDF file. This process combines all layers (if they are present) into one layer.
- Click on Checking PDF Layers for directions.
  Open PDF document in Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
  
  Select View from the Adobe Acrobat Tool Bar
  
  Highlight Navigation Panels
  
  Select Layers from drop-down menu.
  
  Select Options in the Layers box
  
  If the List Layers for All Pages, Merge Layers, or Flatten Layers options are non-functional (ghosted), layers are not present in the document.
  
  If these options are functional, continue with step 5.
  
  Select Flatten Layers from the Options menu
  Note: You cannot undo a flattening operation.
Redacting Existing PDF Text Documents
The Professional version of Adobe Acrobat 8 has a redact tool that allows you to find and remove words or phrases in PDF's containing searchable text. This tool permanently redacts visible text from PDF's. In place of the removed text, redaction marks can appear as colored, filled boxes. IMPORTANT: Do not use the Acrobat Comment and Markup tools to cover sensitive information. Text marked with such tools can easily be recovered and viewed.
1. Open PDF document in Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
  - Save a copy of the PDF before applying redaction markups.
2. Select View from the Adobe Acrobat Tool Bar.
3. Highlight Toolbars
  - Select Redaction from drop-down menu.
    - A "Redaction" toolbar will appear
4. Set the appearance (color) of redaction marks.
  - Click on Redaction Properties on "Redaction" toolbar
  - Under Appearance tab, the square to the left of "Redacted Area Fill Color" indicates the color that will appear over redacted area.. To change color, click on the square and select a different color.
5. Mark the items to be redacted.
  - Click on Mark for Redaction on "Redaction" toolbar
  - Mark individual words for redaction by double clicking on word to be redacted.
    - To mark a specific word or phrase throughout the PDF document, click on Search and Redact on "Redaction" toolbar. Note: This tool does not search secured (encrypted) PDF's
  - Mark an object, line, block or area of text for redaction by holding down the <Control> key as you drag cursor over selected text to be redacted.
    Note: to de-select items marked for redaction, click on the box surrounding the marked item and press the Delete key.
  - Review the PDF to ensure all the appropriate items are marked for redaction.
6. Redact the marked items by clicking on Apply Redactions on "Redaction" toolbar
  - Click OK to redact the marked items. Note: The items are not permanently redacted until the PDF document is saved.
  - To search for and remove hidden information in the document, click Yes to the question "Would you like to examine your document for additional document information?" appearing in the box.. Otherwise, click No.
7. Save the PDF document.
  - Select File from the Adobe Acrobat Tool Bar.
  - Select Save As.
  - Select the appropriate directory in the "Save In" field.
  - Name the file in the "File Name" field and click "Save."
    - To avoid overwriting the original PDF document, enter a different name in the "File name" field.
  - Close this screen by clicking on File from the Adobe Acrobat Tool Bar and Close.

Quick Note

Professional Adobe Acrobat was used to write the instructions for redacting sensitive information from an existing PDF.

The Standard version of Adobe Acrobat does not have the redaction tools.

For assistance with other Acrobat versions or with this procedure, please call the U.S. Bankruptcy Court - Southern District of California's Systems Help Desk at (619) 557-7415.