How does redacting work? Are there automated tools to do this? How many people would it take to do manual redacting?
Automated redaction has been possible for easy things like Social Insurance Numbers and similar structured information. There are advertisements for AI-powered redaction tools.
Microsoft has a find “redact” and “mark for redaction” - that seems like old school to me as find and replace has been present since the beginning of time. There are article on the reversibility and visibility of redacted words.
There isn’t a number given to the Epstein files - “collection of millions” - and 300 gigabytes of data doesn’t sound that big to me. Perhaps we saw 3 million as a recent number of released files. So many to go through for Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
The method or tool used for redaction is automation tools - digital redaction tools within PDF software. And then there is human intervention - called manual “crude” methods. The Epstein redactions are criticized as being inconsistent and ranging from over-redaction (entire pages) to under-redaction - allowing text to be recovered. Suddenly an editing technique is in the spotlight.
There have been many more photo editing scandals - replacing and changing images than text scandals. Text editing redaction scandals of the past include whiting out the Haiphong Massacre (1946), removing it from public records entirely, Marilyn Monroe’s communist sympathies, Nixon Oval Office Tapes, and wait for this one: the CIA redacted WWI-era documents about secret ink until 2011.
It looks like one could write the book on what “not to do” by outlining the methods that the Department of Justice used. Here’s the essence of it HERE.
There are techniques in my photo editing software that I use to bring out “hidden” images structures like clouds. Here’s the prime example of before and after. You can see that texture has been brought out in the windows, that what was blurry or hazy has been dehazed and that there are clear details of the background. It was a nice surprise discovery for me in this case.
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