How Defensible Redaction Works

A code is applied to a redaction as it is made, not reconstructed afterwards from notes. In audio and transcript redaction the spoken segment is replaced and the transcript shows the code in place of the words, so a reader sees that something was withheld and under which exemption rather than an unexplained gap.

The same code is drawn onto the redaction itself in video, images and documents. A requester opening the released file sees both the mask and the basis for it, without being sent to a separate log.

What Defensible Redaction Covers

Exemption codes

51 default codes ship, grouped as US FOIA, UK FOIA and the US Privacy Act. An example is (b)(1)(A), for national security information properly classified under Executive Order. Custom code lists are created per organization, which matters because agencies interpret the same exemption differently and a records unit needs its own wording to survive its own appeals process.

Overlay text on the redaction

The code is rendered into the mask, with configurable color, sized to the region and wrapped to fit it. The basis travels with the file rather than with the covering letter.

Classification marking

Classified passages are shaded as classification markings rather than as ordinary redactions. Removing that shading is a restricted right, not something available to anyone holding edit permission.

The custody trail

Every action on an item is recorded with the user, their email address, the IP address they acted from, the local date and time, and the event. Around 36 event types are recorded, running from ingestion through to disposition. Viewing custody for your own content and for all content are separate entitlements, so an investigator sees their own trail while a supervisor sees the whole one.

Reporting and export

The redaction dashboard reports what was redacted, by whom and when, across the portal, with per-asset detail underneath. The filtered view exports as CSV, for review outside the portal or for attaching to a release package as evidence of how the redaction was carried out.

Metadata removed on export

Embedded metadata is removed or rewritten before a redacted file is exported. A release that obscures faces but ships GPS coordinates, device identifiers or an author name in the file metadata has not achieved what the redaction intended. Applies to audio and video file metadata on export.

Lock against automated deletion

Locking an item excludes it from lifecycle policy action, so an automated purge, soft delete or tier change passes over it while a matter is live. Policy handlers exclude locked items when they select their targets, so the exclusion is applied at selection rather than checked afterwards.

Compliance coverage reporting

When a detection job runs against a framework, the dashboard reports how much of that framework's detection set was actually redacted. It answers whether a release meets the standard it was redacted against, not merely that redaction happened.

Twelve frameworks ship with their own class sets:

US FOIA, UK FOIA

Public-records exemption classes

HIPAA

PHI identifier classes

PCI DSS

Payment and account identifiers only

GDPR, CCPA and CPRA

Personal-data classes

CJIS

Includes license plates, vehicles, weapons, screens and street signs

FERPA, COPPA

Student and minor identifier classes

GLBA, SOX, FRCP

Financial, reporting and civil-procedure classes

Custom class sets are definable alongside the twelve.

What happens to the original

The redaction is burned out of a new rendition, not layered over the original. What happens to the source is then a configured policy, not a side effect.

Policy	Effect	When it is right
Create copy	The original is retained; the redaction is a new asset	Public records and evidence. The default.
Create copy and recycle original	The redaction is created; the original goes to the recycle bin	Workflows where the source is transient
Use original	The original is redacted in place	Privacy workflows where the unredacted version must not persist

Public-records and evidence work generally requires the unredacted record to survive so the withholding can be reviewed, while the redacted copy is what gets released. An appeal against a withholding is decided against the original. If the original is gone, the appeal cannot be answered.

Every Redaction Carries the Reason It Was Made