securing_your_documents
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securing_your_documents [2019/08/04 16:00] – created neil | securing_your_documents [2019/08/09 10:07] – neil | ||
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- | =====Documents and metadata=====Â | + | =====Securing your documents=====Â |
- | ====What is metadata?====Â | + | Â |
- | Data about data | + | ====Key points: ====Â |
+ | * [[securing_your_documents# | ||
+ | * [[securing_your_documents# | ||
+ | * [[securing_your_documents# | ||
+ | * [[securing_your_documents# | ||
+ | * [[securing_your_documents# | ||
+ | * [[securing_your_documents# | ||
+ | Â | ||
+ | Â | ||
+ | ====Be careful about metadata====Â | ||
+ | Metadata are " | ||
If you think about a pretty typical document, you might have some text in it, and some images. These are data that you know about - the intended content of a file. | If you think about a pretty typical document, you might have some text in it, and some images. These are data that you know about - the intended content of a file. | ||
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If you are concerned about making this information available, you might want to explore options for either removing it, or not creating it in the first place. | If you are concerned about making this information available, you might want to explore options for either removing it, or not creating it in the first place. | ||
- | ====Word documents==== | + | ===Removing metadata from Word documents=== |
If you, like many lawyers, work in Microsoft Word, Word offers an option for removing personal data from a document when saving. On Word for Mac version 15, this is a setting under Tools / Protect Document. | If you, like many lawyers, work in Microsoft Word, Word offers an option for removing personal data from a document when saving. On Word for Mac version 15, this is a setting under Tools / Protect Document. | ||
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If you are sufficiently concerned, you might want to validate this yourself. However, another option would be to use a tool other than Microsoft Word, which creates or permits less metadata in the first place. Perhaps a simple text file would do the trick? | If you are sufficiently concerned, you might want to validate this yourself. However, another option would be to use a tool other than Microsoft Word, which creates or permits less metadata in the first place. Perhaps a simple text file would do the trick? | ||
- | ====PDFs==== | + | Â |
+ | ===Removing metadata from PDFs=== | ||
As with Word documents, PDFs can contain metadata, and that might include information you don’t want to share — your name, for example. | As with Word documents, PDFs can contain metadata, and that might include information you don’t want to share — your name, for example. | ||
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Some tools will just update the metadata fields, leaving the original metadata in situ and recoverable. | Some tools will just update the metadata fields, leaving the original metadata in situ and recoverable. | ||
- | ====Redacting from a document==== | ||
- | If you are in a practice area which needs to redact information from | ||
- | ====Images==== | + | ===Removing metadata from images=== |
Images, especially photographs, | Images, especially photographs, | ||
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Equally, you might not want to have location recorded with every image. You can turn this off in the Location Services settings on your phone - and, while you are there, you may well want to turn off other location-using applications too. | Equally, you might not want to have location recorded with every image. You can turn this off in the Location Services settings on your phone - and, while you are there, you may well want to turn off other location-using applications too. | ||
- | ====Screenshots==== | + | You can remove metadata from images on macOS using [[https:// |
+ | Â | ||
+ | You might be better off not sharing a document at all, but rather sharing an image of it. If you take a screenshot of the page of a document and share that, any metadata residing in the document will not be shared. However, there may still be metadata in the screenshot itself. | ||
+ | Â | ||
+ | ====PDFs are editable | ||
+ | Â | ||
+ | Do not send someone a PDF thinking that they cannot edit it. | ||
+ | Â | ||
+ | They can. | ||
+ | Â | ||
+ | (And if it's part of a contract negotiation, | ||
+ | Â | ||
+ | ====If you need to redact a document, do it properly====Â | ||
+ | If you need to redact information from a document while still retaining the document (as opposed to just extracting the particular information you need to provide), look for tools which do a proper redaction, rather than just covering the information up. | ||
+ | Â | ||
+ | For PDF, Adobe Acrobat can do a proper redaction, as can [[https:// | ||
- | In some circumstances, | + | If you are unsure if you have done it properly, print the document |
securing_your_documents.txt · Last modified: 2021/07/06 09:26 by 127.0.0.1