Is your redaction actually safe?
Drop a redacted PDF or image. We'll tell you if the text, metadata, or GPS data underneath is still recoverable — 100% in your browser.
Upload a file to verify
PDF, PNG, JPG, WebP · up to 50MB · stays on your device
What the verifier looks for
Live text layer in PDFs
The #1 redaction failure: someone draws a black box in Preview or Acrobat and the text layer underneath stays intact. Anyone can select, copy, or search-extract it. We extract and show you any text we find so you can judge whether it belongs.
PDF annotations
Annotations (squares, highlights, stamps) float above the page and can be hidden, moved, or deleted by the recipient. If a black annotation is covering text, the text is still there. We count them and report what type.
PDF metadata
Author, title, subject, keyword, and software fields can identify who made the document even if the visible content is fully redacted. We surface identifying fields separately from benign software/timestamp fields.
Image EXIF (JPEG)
GPS coordinates, camera serial numbers, author tags — all common in photos of IDs. Even with the ID number blacked out, EXIF can tell a recipient where and when the photo was taken.
What this verifier does NOT check
Honest disclosure — we'd rather tell you than have you assume:
- Reversibility of blur / pixelation. Some weak pixelation can be reversed in theory, but runtime detection has too many false positives to be useful. If you blurred text, treat it as guessable and pixel-black it instead.
- PNG / WebP metadata. These formats can carry XMP and tEXt metadata chunks but we don't parse them yet. Visible pixel redactions on PNG/WebP are safe; we just can't audit their sidecar metadata for you today.
- Hidden PDF layers, embedded files, form fields. We scan the standard text, annotation, and metadata surfaces — which covers the overwhelming majority of real-world redaction leaks. Exotic PDF features aren't inspected.
- Whether the redaction looks right visually. We can't tell from text alone which parts were supposed to be hidden — that's your call. We give you the raw signal; you decide.
Found a leak? Redact it properly.
RedactID rasterizes PDFs page-by-page and paints opaque pixels over the regions you mark, so no text layer, annotation, or metadata survives. One free redaction per day — no account required.
Why “redacted” documents still leak
Most people who redact a document for the first time open it in Preview, Acrobat, or a PDF editor and draw black rectangles over the sensitive parts. Visually it looks redacted. Underneath, the PDF still contains the original text as selectable, searchable, copyable data — the rectangles are just a new drawing on top.
The fix is pixel-destructive redaction: convert each page to an image, paint opaque pixels over the sensitive regions, and re-export. No text layer survives, because there are no characters left to decode — only pixels. This is what RedactID does, and it's what this verifier is checking yours for.
Photos of IDs have a different failure mode: the black box you drew is fine, but modern phones embed GPS and device identifiers in EXIF metadata by default. A landlord who receives the photo can read exactly where you were standing when you took it. Strip EXIF before sharing — every major OS has a one-tap option for this now.