What needs to be redacted?

Redaction and Personal Information

Questions always arise on what needs to be redacted from documents to protect user privacy.  I always refer people to the legal industry, and they define the following items in the Federal Rule for Civil procedure.  Below is a list of items that should be redacted from all court submitted documents:

• Last 4 digits of a social-security or taxpayer ID number;
• Year of an individual's birth (not month or day);
• Minor's initials;
• Last 4 digits of a financial-account number.

Other types of information appropriate for redaction include:

• Medical information;
• Trade secrets;
• Informant names;
• Sensitive security information;
• Other forms of unique identifiers.