Legal documents are among the riskiest files to redact incorrectly. A missed identifier on a court filing can result in sanctions, a re-filing requirement, or — in high-profile cases — a public leak of sensitive information. Multiple federal court filings have been embarrassingly un-redacted in recent years because attorneys used tools that draw black boxes over text without actually removing it. Copy-paste the "redacted" section, and the original text appears.
FilePulp's redaction tool flattens each page to an image on export — physically destroying the text under your redaction boxes. Combined with the fact that your file never leaves your browser (essential for privileged materials), it's suitable for contracts, e-filings, NDAs, discovery productions, and personal legal records.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2 governs privacy protection for electronic filings in federal court. Before filing a document on PACER or a federal docket, these categories must be redacted:
XXX-XX-1234J.D.State courts have their own rules, often modeled on FRCP 5.2 but sometimes broader — including home addresses, phone numbers, drivers' license numbers, or passport numbers. Always check your jurisdiction's local rules before filing. Some examples:
Always redact: FRCP 5.2 categories plus jurisdiction-specific additions. Addresses if any party has requested confidentiality.
Check local rules: Some courts require redactions to also appear in sealed filings as a backstop.
Redact: Counterparty name and signature, specific dollar amounts, specific delivery dates, unique identifiers (contract number, SKU), trade secrets, exhibit contents.
Keep: Generic terms, structure, non-identifying clauses.
Redact: Everything identifying a party, specific claims, amounts, jurisdictions. Many settlement agreements contain a confidentiality clause — redaction may be legally required, not optional.
Check first: Some settlements restrict even the existence of the agreement from being disclosed.
Redact: Minor children's names (use initials), SSNs, financial account numbers, home addresses of parties with safety concerns, medical info.
Extra care: Many family court jurisdictions require sealing for financial declarations; check state rules.
Redact per a privilege review: Attorney-client privileged communication, work product, trade secrets subject to protective order.
Use Bates numbering after redaction for production organization.
Often redacted by agency: PII of uninvolved third parties, law-enforcement techniques, medical records. If you're releasing records you received, check if FOIA exemptions still apply to third-party PII.
Many free PDF editors (including default tools in Preview, Adobe Reader's free tier, and some online services) don't
actually redact — they draw a black rectangle on top of text that is still fully extractable. Copy-paste, text-search,
or a plain pdftotext command reveals the "redacted" content.
This failure mode has caused major leaks in federal court filings. The 2019 Manafort filing, the 2020 DPRK exhibits in the House Intelligence Committee, and the 2022 Alex Jones emails all exposed supposedly-redacted content because whoever prepared the filings used a tool that drew rectangles instead of destroying text.
FilePulp avoids this entirely: on export, every page is rendered to a high-DPI image via canvas, and the image is what gets written to the output PDF. The redacted text doesn't exist in the output file — not copy-pasteable, not searchable, not extractable by any tool.
Open the PDF, draw boxes over protected information, export a truly redacted file. Nothing uploaded, nothing stored, nothing seen by FilePulp.
Open the Redaction Tool →Attorney-client privilege and work-product doctrine are fragile: if privileged material is shared with a third party (including a vendor that stores or processes the document), courts have occasionally found that privilege was waived. The law around SaaS vendors and privilege waiver is still unsettled, and while most courts treat SaaS vendors as the equivalent of a traditional service provider (not a waiver), the safer posture for sensitive material is to avoid third-party processing entirely.
FilePulp's redaction tool runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript, WebAssembly, pdf.js, and pdf-lib. No file content is ever transmitted to any server. Verify this yourself: open DevTools → Network before opening your document; you'll see zero outbound requests carrying file data. You can even disconnect from the internet after the page loads, and the tool continues to work. This architecture makes the privilege-waiver question inapplicable by design.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2 requires redacting five categories from publicly filed documents in federal court: SSNs (keep last 4), TINs (keep last 4), birth dates (keep year only), names of minor children (initials only), and financial account numbers (keep last 4). Most state courts have similar rules; check your jurisdiction.
If you're sharing a sample with someone who doesn't need the counterparty's identity (lawyer friend for review, forum post for feedback), yes — redact the counterparty name, specific amounts, and unique identifiers. If the NDA itself contains a confidentiality clause, redaction may be legally required.
No. On export, each page is flattened to a high-resolution image, physically destroying the text under your redaction boxes. Copy-paste, text search, and PDF text extraction tools all return nothing for the redacted areas.
A properly redacted document (true text destruction, not a black box) can be filed in federal and state courts that permit redacted filings. FRCP 5.2 and most state e-filing systems require this kind of redaction. Confirm your specific court's requirements with the clerk's office or local rules — some courts require specific markings, cover sheets, or a separate unredacted version filed under seal.
No. Everything runs in your browser. No file data is ever transmitted to FilePulp or any server. Open DevTools → Network before using the tool and watch — you'll see zero outbound requests with file content.
Bates numbering that's part of the rendered page content is preserved (it becomes part of the flattened image). Document metadata (author, created date, editing history) in the PDF's XMP stream is stripped on export because the output is a re-assembled PDF. If you need to preserve specific metadata for production, check the exported file's properties before sending.
Redact contracts, court filings, and NDAs in seconds. Free, secure, browser-only.
Redact My Document →Bank Statements · Tax Documents · Medical Records · Screenshots & Photos