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Un-Redacting Documents

This came to my inbox today. It's not my response and I haven't tried this but it looks kind of interesting.

Question: Does anyone have a technique for uncovering the identifying information on these documents? The D.A.s office simply uses a black marker to black out the names and home addresses. I have been asked by two of thelawyers to see if there is anything we can do. Please respond via e-mail and thank you for your support

IF they just use a black sharpie, then try viewing the document with your nightshot sony camera. There are special filters that will allow you to see through light clothes, tint, sunglasses, and marker. I've found that my Sony nightshot WITHOUT the filter will see through most black sharpies when placed in the nightshot (green) mode. If however, they marked it out with the sharpie and THEN Xeroxed it, you are out of luck. Also, sometimes paint thinner or nail polish remover will remove the black sharpie. It might ruin your original though. Try the camera first.

On a related note, you can sometimes find a few surprises if you copy and paste emails from your inbox to a Power Point slide. I've done this with emails having only a "TO: and FROM:" but when pasted into the PPT slide, full headers and BCC addresses magically appear. This has happened with MySpace personal pages as well where the online page title says one thing and the PPT copy says another. It doesn't always work but it's worth a try.

Full post as published by Of a Public Defender's Life on June 12, 2009 (boomark / email).