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FACEBOOK CAN'T CATCH A BREAK - Settlement Details Revealed Due to Improper Redaction
Posted by Mark Rosch | Internet for Lawyers
March 25, 2009
Just days after the amount of Facebook's preliminary, confidential settlement with ConnectU were trumpeted in a marketing piece by former ConnectU law firm Quinn Emanuel, (and widely reported by Law.com
<http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1202428139731>) Facebook is dealt another blow.
San Francisco-based, Associated Press technology reporter Michael Liedtke was able to extract a more precise breakdown of the reported $65 million dollar settlement Facebook reached with Connect U from a PDF of the proceedings' transcript "unsealed and [improperly] redacted by the court." (comment added)
Liedtke reported <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/10/state/n230703S73.DTL> that even though,"Large portions of that hearing are redacted in a transcript of the June hearing, but The Associated Press was able to readthe blacked-out portions by copying from an electronic version of the document and pasting the results into another document."
The transcript, as posted by the court, is available via Justia.com <http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/5:2007cv01389/189975/474/0.pdf>. That document shows large portions of blank space where text has apparently been deleted with a simple "[REDACTED]" notation. It appears that whoever "redacted" the document simply removed "the visible text" from the image layer of the document, but not the "invisible" information in "text" layer. (The availability of the separate text layer is what makes certain PDFs searchable.) It's that invisible information in the text layer that the reporter would have been able to highlight, copy, and paste into another document to reveal the redacted
details.
This is avoidable with Adobe Acrobat Professional's Redaction tool (available in version 8 and newer). The redaction tool not only covers the visible text with a black box, it also deletes the "invisible" information in the text layer - making it non-retrievable.
Learn more tips and tricks for handling and safeguarding electronic documents in TechShow 2009's Paperless Practice Track.
San Francisco-based, Associated Press technology reporter Michael Liedtke was able to extract a more precise breakdown of the reported $65 million dollar settlement Facebook reached with Connect U from a PDF of the proceedings' transcript "unsealed and [improperly] redacted by the court." (comment added)
Liedtke reported <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/10/state/n230703S73.DTL> that even though,"Large portions of that hearing are redacted in a transcript of the June hearing, but The Associated Press was able to readthe blacked-out portions by copying from an electronic version of the document and pasting the results into another document."
The transcript, as posted by the court, is available via Justia.com <http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/5:2007cv01389/189975/474/0.pdf>. That document shows large portions of blank space where text has apparently been deleted with a simple "[REDACTED]" notation. It appears that whoever "redacted" the document simply removed "the visible text" from the image layer of the document, but not the "invisible" information in "text" layer. (The availability of the separate text layer is what makes certain PDFs searchable.) It's that invisible information in the text layer that the reporter would have been able to highlight, copy, and paste into another document to reveal the redacted
details.
This is avoidable with Adobe Acrobat Professional's Redaction tool (available in version 8 and newer). The redaction tool not only covers the visible text with a black box, it also deletes the "invisible" information in the text layer - making it non-retrievable.
Learn more tips and tricks for handling and safeguarding electronic documents in TechShow 2009's Paperless Practice Track.