Success storyIndustry• GovernmentSolution• OpenText™ Brava!™

Results
Secured quick and reliable
electronic method to redact andshare content
Ensured complete removal of allprivate and confidential information
Created fully sanitized TIFF or PDF
renditions of the original document
for easy distribution

State agency speeds redaction

State Labor Department employs fast, reliable electronic removalof private information, complies with Public Records Act with
OpenText Brava!

“Our office was redacting byhand with white redaction tape …
We’re saving a lot of time using
OpenText Brava!”
Research analystState Labor Department

State agency speeds redaction

A State Labor Department must meet a five-day deadline in
responding to public requests via the Public Records Act. In addition
to the deadline, the State’s Labor Department is challenged withprotecting privacy and confidential information before records arereleased to the public. It must redact only the exempt informationand disclose the rest of the document. Exemptions include suchthings as bank account numbers, taxpayer information, residential
addresses and social security numbers.
The Labor Department oversees programs to protect the safety, healthand security of workers in the state. For example, a worker who claims tohave been injured on the job can file a discrimination complaint with thedepartment if he or she feels discriminated against for filing a workers’
compensation claim. An agency investigator is then assigned to compile
evidence to confirm or deny the discrimination claim. The complete
complaint file contains interviews and exhibits submitted by the worker
and the employer.
As explained by a research analyst with the department’s Public
Records Division, “The complaint file could contain any numberof document types, including emails, paperwork, phone records;
anything that either side might use to make their case.”
If the case generates public or media interest, the labor department
could get outside requests for public records related to the case. Prior
to releasing any documents, private and confidential information mustfirst be redacted. “The claim information contained within the file
is confidential to anyone other than the employer or the injured
worker,” said the analyst. “Any information that reveals the identityof the worker has to be redacted.”

Records requests coming into the department could require redacting
as few as 50 pages or up to more than 20,000 pages.
Given limited budgets and staff, the state agency continually searches
for more efficient ways to respond to public records requests. It
successfully deployed OpenText™ Brava!™ to improve response timeand methods. To redact public records, the analyst and her publicrecords colleagues rely on the electronic tool to safely remove private
information and sensitive content from virtually any document type,including PDF, TIFF and Microsoft® Word and Microsoft® Excel®.
Brava! makes it easy to redact all instances of a name, social security
number, birthdate, phone number, account number and more. Users canalso redact predefined block out zones by creating a redaction template.
Redactions can be applied simply by dragging a box, by searching fortext strings or patterns or by applying reusable scripts. It also has an
add-on option to perform optical character recognition (OCR) on TIFF
documents as they are loaded.
The Brava! verify panel lets users easily step through each redaction
to ensure all text is completely covered, no erroneous content wasredacted and that all sensitive content was, in fact, redacted. Brava!
creates fully sanitized TIFF or PDF renditions of the original document
for easy distribution. Private content is actually removed in the output
file, not just covered. No hidden text or metadata is transferred to theredacted file.
The staff recognizes the efficiency the OpenText solution offers. “We’resaving a lot of time using Brava!,” said the analyst. “Before Brava!,
our office was redacting by hand with white redaction tape. Then wewould bracket the area in pen so when you photocopied the document
you could see where the white tape—or redaction—had been applied.”“OpenText Brava! did the201 redactions in abouta minute and a half … itprobably would havetaken me two days.”
Research analyst

State Labor Department

State agency speeds redaction

Since she prefers a clutter-free desk, the Analyst related, “Electronicredaction is much better, especially for someone like me … Brava!
is neater, cleaner and makes it easier to stay organized. Now, I
don’t have stacks and stacks of paper on my desk waiting forwhite redaction tape.”
Instead, she can scan a document, creating a TIFF file. Because her
department purchased the OCR add-on, Brava! automatically performs
OCR on the TIFF files upon opening. The second time the analyst used
Brava!, she was able to set up a script to look for 20 claimant names andthen apply it to the TIFF file after it performed the OCR step. “Brava! did
the 201 redactions in about a minute and a half,” she said. “By hand,
it probably would have taken me two days to go through, apply thetape and bracket everything.”

Brava! makes it easy for state agencies to redact private information
before releasing public records.
Having deployed the OpenText solution just a few short months ago, theanalyst said, “It’s now become second nature. I can’t even think about
the redaction tape. In fact, I had some in my desk and I got rid of all ofit. I put it back over into the supply store and said, ‘I don’t want to see
this ever again!’”

About OpenText

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through market leading information
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visit opentext.com.
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