Manual vs AI Redaction: Which is Better for Documents?
Introduction:
Choosing the right document redaction tool for your needs can be challenging, especially when dealing with medical, financial, or educational records. These documents often contain hundreds or even thousands of pages of sensitive information that require careful redaction. Without the right tool, the risk of data breaches and human error increases, potentially exposing individuals to identity theft or unauthorized access to their personal information. CaseGuard Studio simplifies this process with its reliable and user-friendly document redaction features, including Manual and AI redaction, that ensure all sensitive information is securely redacted, giving you peace of mind.
To illustrate the difference, let’s compare manual and AI redaction on a 2-page resume containing personal information (like names, addresses, and phone numbers).
| Tasks | Manual Document Redaction | AI Document Redaction |
|---|---|---|
| Time to Setup (Create a Project and add the resume into CaseGuard.) | 7 Seconds | 7 Seconds |
| Time to redact PII and export | 1 Minute and 52 Seconds | 34 Seconds |
Manual Document Redaction:
Use Case:
- A legal department needs to redact signatures from legal documents before sharing them with external parties. Using Manual redaction users can easily redact all signatures within the document to comply with privacy regulations.
- A financial institution needs to censor keywords about one of its clients from a document before filing it in a local server. Manually redacting any sensitive information is easy with CaseGuard Studio.
Benefits:
- Users can redact both text and graphics anywhere in the document, ensuring comprehensive protection.
- Repeat the redaction process across multiple pages with ease, ensuring no sensitive information is overlooked.
- Categorize redactions using color coding and assign reasons for each redaction, providing a transparent audit trail.
Step-by-Step Guide:
- Upload: Upload the file to CaseGuard Studio.
- Manual Redaction: Right-click anywhere on the document and select Manual Redaction from the pop-up.
- Scan and Redact: Go through your document, manually drawing redaction boxes over any PII.
- Review and Export: Review your document to ensure any sensitive information has been redacted. The best way to do this is with the effects panel and Go To Position
button, which allows you to review the exact point of your redaction. Then Export .
button, which allows you to review the exact point of your redaction. Then Export 
.In total, the process of uploading, redacting, reviewing, and exporting took around 2 minutes for our in-house redaction expert. CaseGuard Studio’s Manual Document feature empowers users with complete control over the redacting process and exactly how their documents are redacted. With just a few clicks, users can conceal Personally Identifiable Information (PII), classified data, or any other sensitive content, making it ideal for documents requiring precision or manual edits after the initial AI analysis.
Let’s see it in action!
AI Document Analysis:
Use Case:
- A healthcare organization receives a large volume of medical records daily, which need to be processed quickly and securely. Using AI Document Analysis, the healthcare organization can instantly identify these and redact all PIIs found in the medical records.
- A tech company needs to censor the names and signatures of all of its users on their agreement forms. Using AI document analysis, this can be done with a single click.
Benefits:
- Reduces the time required for manual PII removal in extensive documents featuring various categories of PII.
- Provides automated detection and redaction of PII, minimizing the risk of human error.
- Users can review the list of identified PII and choose to keep certain information unredacted, ensuring flexibility in decision-making.
Step-by-Step Guide:
- Upload: Upload the file to CaseGuard Studio.
- AI Redaction: Click AI Document in the left-hand toolbar.
- Specify Redaction: Using AI Analysis, choose that you want all PII redacted.
- Review and Adjust: Review the redactions made by the AI using the Analytics Panel, removing or adjusting redactions as needed.
- Export: Click the Export icon.
In total, the process of uploading, redacting, reviewing, and exporting took 41 seconds. CaseGuard Studio’s AI Analysis automates the identification and redaction of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in documents, significantly reducing manual effort and time. It efficiently identifies details such as names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and medical record numbers.
Let’s see it in action!
Conclusion:
These two document redaction tools show how CaseGuard Studio can help with any document redaction task. Sarah Sun, a client of CaseGuard’s, had this to say about CaseGuard Studio’s document redaction features:
“As a legal professional dealing with sensitive client documents, the redaction service provided by the team at CaseGuard has been invaluable. Their attention to detail and commitment to maintaining confidentiality has given me the peace of mind I need to ensure my clients’ information stays protected. Their redaction service is not just a tool; it’s a security measure I can’t work without.”
Both Manual and AI-based document redaction features offered by CaseGuard Studio provide organizations with powerful tools to protect sensitive information effectively. While Manual Document Redaction offers precision and control, AI Document Analysis significantly enhances efficiency and scalability. Organizations can leverage these solutions to ensure compliance, mitigate risk, and safeguard their data across various document types and languages.
