Like, I know we redact classified or secret information from docs, I get *why* you redact them, but like you see those sheets of paper that are all black lines so why bother creating them in the first place if thier totally unreadable?
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Sometimes the government is legally mandated to produce a document (like a Freedom of Information Request, for those in the US), but at the same time is required to protect the information in that document. So a large scale blanket redaction fulfills both – document was provided, information is protected.
Two primary reasons come to mind.
1. The document was already created. The redacted part is just that, it’s censoring the document after the fact. Then copies of the redacted document are made because multiple people want to see it at once or are requesting it. But somebody has gone through the original document and censored (redacted) all of the information that wasn’t releasable for various reasons (couple be privacy protections, could be because they contain secrets not yet declassified).
2. The document was requested, normally through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) which is basically a law that says you have public access to all federal agency records except for those records (or portions of those records) that are protected… With that there are 9 categories of protected things such as still classified. So in that case a federal agency has to provide access to those records (physical or digitally) and they will redact the still protected part as applicable.
Hello – public records professional here. So the records are created for business of the agency. Those blacked out sections are readable internally but due to the sensitive nature of the information it needs to be withheld from the public. According to public records laws and FOIA, the documents are subject to release leaving what information can be released but should they contain any sensitive information the agency is compelled by law to redact. This information can be things like social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, building security plans, ongoing investigations- things that would jeopardize an individual’s or an agency’s security or investigative integrity. This information is needed for an agency to do their business but not for general viewing by the public.
I can’t find it now, but Dave Barry once wrote a column about the Senate receiving a copy a House bill that was entirely blacked out, and it wasn’t a mistake.
When the Senate sends the House a bill, and the House disagrees with a portion of the bill, they send it back with the parts they don’t like blacked out.
There is no exception if the House disagrees with the entire bill, so each member of Senate receives a blacked out copy of the original bill.
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