Hintyr permanently removes sensitive content from files so it cannot be viewed, copied, searched, or recovered. Document redaction strips both visible content and hidden metadata to help you meet production obligations under rules such as FRCP Rule 5.2 and protective orders.
What document redaction means in a legal context
In litigation, redaction means permanently removing sensitive, privileged, or irrelevant information from documents before you produce them to opposing counsel, file them with a court, or share them with third parties. FRCP Rule 5.2 requires redaction of Social Security numbers, taxpayer IDs, birth dates, minor names, and financial account numbers in court filings. Beyond that, privilege redaction removes attorney-client communications from otherwise responsive documents, and protective-order redaction blocks contact details or trade secrets as directed by the court.
Drawing a black rectangle over text in a word processor is not enough. If the underlying content stays in the file, anyone can extract it by copying, searching, or examining the raw PDF data. Hintyr strips marked content at the data level, not just the visual level.
How Hintyr handles PDF redaction
Hintyr redaction is designed for court filings and document productions. When you apply redactions, the content beneath each mark is permanently deleted from the file. Redacted areas appear as solid black boxes, and the original text or image data no longer exists anywhere in the file.
Beyond visible content, Hintyr scrubs document metadata during redaction. Author names, revision history, embedded comments, tracked changes, and other hidden data are cleaned from the file. This reduces the risk of sensitive information leaking through metadata when you share or produce redacted documents.
Available document redaction methods
Hintyr offers six redaction methods. Use them individually or combine them on the same document:
- Text selection - Click and drag over specific words, sentences, or paragraphs to redact them.
- Box drawing - Draw rectangles over images, signatures, handwritten notes, or any area of the page.
- Full-page redaction - Redact entire pages at once when they're wholly privileged or irrelevant.
- Keyword search - Find every occurrence of a term within a document and redact selected matches.
- Batch redaction - Search for keywords across multiple files and apply redactions in bulk.
- AI-assisted redaction - Tell the AI agent to detect and flag categories of sensitive information like Social Security numbers, phone numbers, or email addresses.
The two-step redaction workflow
Every redaction method in Hintyr follows the same two-step workflow. First, you mark content for redaction. These markings appear as pending annotations visible in the PDF viewer and the annotation sidebar. Add, remove, or adjust pending redactions freely during this stage. Nothing touches the original document.
Second, you apply the pending redactions. This permanently removes the marked content from the file. The document then shows black boxes where the redacted content used to be. If you need the original file back, use the revert options to restore it.