Tutorial · Acrobat · Beginner

Redact personal data correctly in Acrobat Pro (IC numbers, phone numbers, emails)

Use Find & Redact with patterns, apply redactions and sanitise the document — so personal data is really gone.

LevelBeginner
Time15 minutes
TopicAcrobat

You'll need

  • Acrobat Pro or Acrobat Studio (Acrobat Standard doesn't include redaction)

1. Open the Redact tool

  1. All tools → Redact a PDF.

2. Find patterns

  1. Choose Find text & redact → Patterns for phone numbers, emails and credit card numbers.
  2. For Malaysian IC numbers, search with Find text for the format used in your documents (e.g. ######-##-####) or use a regex-capable workflow for bulk files.

3. Mark and apply

  1. Review each marked item, then Apply — this permanently removes the content.
  2. Save as a new file (keep the original in a restricted location).

4. Sanitise

  1. Run Sanitize document (or Remove hidden information) to clear metadata, comments, hidden layers and attachments.

5. Verify

Search the saved file for a redacted value — it must return no results. Try copying text from the redacted area.

Tips

  • Never 'redact' with black highlight or shapes — the text underneath stays.