Best Redaction Software: Protect Data & Ensure Compliance

Reports indicate that over 322 million individuals in the United States have been impacted by data breaches. Explore how to prevent data exposure, protect privacy, and ensure compliance using the best redaction software.

With rising privacy concerns over secure data management, redaction failures, and the increasing need to comply with regulations like HIPAA, CCPA, FERPA, CJIS, FOIA, the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and GDPR, it’s crucial to choose the best redaction software to protect data privacy, and ensure secure data sharing and compliance, across videos, audio, images and documents.

Several redaction software solutions have emerged on the market to assist in the process. However, the best redacting software should offer robust features, deliver accurate results, be user-friendly, secure, and incorporate automation and AI capabilities to streamline your workflow.

With multiple options in the market, selecting the ideal software can be challenging and time-consuming. Fortunately, you're in the right place. This blog compares the eight best redaction software, highlighting essential features based on extensive market research and our decade of industry experience. 

Why Choose the Best Redaction Software? 

Relying on outdated, manual redaction methods jeopardizes your compliance. These traditional workflows are not only time-consuming and labor-intensive but also prone to errors, increasing the risk of non-compliance and costly consequences.

Read more about how manual redaction exposed Sony’s confidential data.

The best redacting software offers a user-friendly platform that combines both manual selection and automatic identification of sensitive content, such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), and Confidential Commercial Information (CCI) in documents, videos, images, and audio. This ensures protection from unauthorized access.

What sets best redaction software apart is its ability to automate the identification and redaction of confidential information. This automation helps ensure compliance with data privacy regulations, prevent costly consequences, and provide a comprehensive solution for organizations.

AI-powered redaction goes even further by tracking specific subjects of interest, like a running person in a video, and automatically applying black boxes, blurring, or pixelation to safeguard the sensitive content.

Let's examine some of the big names in the redaction software industry. This will help you make an informed decision and make the right investment for your organization’s long-term needs. 

8 Best Redaction Software for Data Privacy and Compliance

Here is a list of the best redacting software, and we have compared them feature-by-feature to help you make an informed decision.  

VIDIZMO Redactor

VIDIZMO has a constantly improving proprietary redaction tool called VIDIZMO Redactor.

VIDIZMO Redactor uses VIDIZMO Indexer to power its AI. This allows it to perform automatic redaction through multiple capabilities, including automatic pattern recognition, object detection and tracking, Optical Character Recognition, and spoken PII redaction.  

With this tool, faces, people, and other PII stored across audio images and documents can be redacted in bulk. Redaction can also be done for custom-defined objects such as license plates, addresses, symbols, weapons like guns and rifles, and other elements in videos.  

Key Features of VIDIZMO Redactor:

• It supports multiple file formats for video, audio, document, and images. 
• Extensive deployment options – on the cloud, on-premises, or as SaaS
• Automatic and Manual Redaction, meeting current market demands 
• Bulk redaction capabilities for multiple documents, images, and audio files. 
• Supports compliances with CJIS, HIPAA, GDPR, FOIA, CCPA, GIPA, FERPA
• Option to blur, pixelate, or cover sensitive content with a black box
• Data security through access control and industry-standard encryption 
• Integration capabilities through widgets and APIs   
• Original files can be retained or overwritten with configurable retention and redaction copy. 
• Multi-lingual translation and transcription of up to 40+ languages
• It can be provided as a standalone tool or an add-on with either of VIDIZMO’s products. 

Veritone Redact

Veritone's redaction tool, Veritone Redact, is aimed at law enforcement data, judicial agencies, and legal and compliance teams. 

The tool uses aiWARE to power its AI, which auto-detects sensitive information. The detection results are displayed chronologically alongside the tool’s video player. The player supports downloading the redacted file alongside an audit log of all its changes.   

Key Features of Veritone Redact

• Automatic and Manual redaction  
• Specifically designed for digital evidence and law enforcement  
• Can redact faces, license plates, and laptop screens, as well as custom-defined elements  
• Offers support for audio, image, and video redaction 
• Integrated with VERITONE’s digital evidence system  
• Works for video, audio, and images  
• Redacted files can be downloaded

Axon Redaction Assistant

Axon is one of the oldest contenders in the law enforcement industry. Formerly known as TASER, the company has its redaction tool, Axon Redaction Assistant.   

The tool has been mentioned as being able to detect up to twenty faces at a time. In addition to faces, the tool can redact MDTs and license plates.   

The tool can also be used manually for added accuracy, is claimed to be constantly improving, and can be executed as a background task. It also exists as an add-on for Axon Evidence.   

Key Features of AXON Redaction Assistant:

• Offers audio and video redaction
• Capable of redacting up to twenty faces simultaneously  
• Capable of redacting faces, license plates, and MDT screens  
• Automatic and Manual Redaction  
• Background execution  
• Integration possible with AXON Evidence and other AXON hardware products

CaseGuard Video Redaction Software

CaseGuard’s product, CaseGuard Redaction Software, is a standalone  redaction tool that allows for redaction in both automatic and manual modes.   

To be more specific, redaction can be performed on a video in automatic mode with the power of AI, in a manual object tracking mode where the user specifies an object to be redacted, which is later tracked and redacted throughout the video. Caseguard also offers support for audio, images, and documents. 

The last is simple manual redaction through masking with boxes, with no tracking of objects.  

Key Features of CaseGuard Video Redaction Software:

• Supports redaction for video, audio, documents, and images.
• AI-powered redaction of faces, license plates, monitor screens, phone screens, people, vehicles, notebooks, credit cards and paper objects.
• Automatic and Manual Redaction 
• Automatic Bulk Redaction  
• Simple user-interface  
• Offers collaborative redaction support with its Redaction Pool feature, which allows users to collaborate on redaction tasks. 
• Tracking of detected elements throughout the video.

Motorola WatchGuard REDACTIVE

REDACTIVE by Motorola Solutions automatically detects faces, people, vehicles, license plates, and small objects and enables the user to manually choose which are to be redacted.  

The tool can also scan the entire video backward and forward for any manually redacted element at any point in the video. The tool is also applicable for audio redaction.  

Key Features of Motorola Solution REDACTIVE:  

• Offers audio and video redaction.
• Offers multiple redaction types.
• Allows editing of redaction intensity from low, medium, or high.
• Automatic and Manual Redaction
• Able to detect faces, people, vehicles, license plates, and other manual objects.
• Tracking of detected elements back and forth in the video.
• Available for audio and video redaction.
  
• Platform independent software

Sighthound Redactor

Sighthound Redactor is an AI-powered software designed to automate the redaction of sensitive information in videos, images, and audio files. It utilizes advanced computer vision algorithms to detect and redact faces, vehicles, license plates, and other identifiable information, ensuring privacy and compliance with data protection regulations.

Key Features of Sighthound Redactor:

• Automatic Redaction to auto-detect and redact sensitive content across videos and images, including faces, vehicles, and license plates.  
• Allows users to draw redaction boxes around specific objects for precise control manually.  
• Tracking of detected elements back and forth in the video.
• Available for audio and video redaction.
  
• Platform independent software
• Provides a user-friendly interface with multi-language support, catering to a diverse user base.

Genetec Clearance Redaction Tool

Genetec Clearance has a built-in redaction tool that allows for redaction on demand. Each upload is automatically scanned for facial detection.  

The tool then allows the user to choose which faces to redact and add additional masks to redact other elements in the video.  

The tool can be used to redact, review, and directly add a video to a case as part of their Clearance digital evidence management system.  

Key Features of Genetec Clearance Redaction Tool: 

• Redaction tool built-in with the evidence management system  
• Automatic face detection for redaction
• Automatic and Manual redaction
• Faces can be labeled 
• Object redaction based on custom masks
• Easy-to-use interface

SuspectTech Exact Redact

SuspectTech (Suspect Technologies) has a redaction tool named Exact Redact. The tool provides automatic and manual redaction of video and audio data.

Using the tool, faces, people, and cars can be automatically redacted, whereas manual redaction can be used for audio and custom identifiable information. Their focus is on meeting the compliance needs specified in CJIS.

Key Features of SuspectTech Exact Redact:

• Automatic redaction of faces, cars, and people.
• Multiple blur filter options to redact sensitive information.  
• Manual redaction of objects.  
• Audio redactions present through manual mode.
• Deployment options for Azure Government Cloud, on-premises, and desktop application.

Choose VIDIZMO's Best Redaction Software

With several redaction software solutions available on the market, it’s crucial to select one that meets your specific needs while ensuring accurate redaction for videos, audio, images, and documents, for secure data sharing, and compliance with regulations.

Consider automatic and manual redaction capabilities to enhance productivity and accuracy when evaluating options. Additional features like an intuitive interface, integrations, and robust security measures are essential to comprehensively protect your data.

VIDIZMO Redactor continuously evolves with frequent updates that introduce new features and improvements. The software leverages AI-powered capabilities to automatically detect sensitive elements, such as faces, people, license plates, addresses, symbols, and other custom-defined objects within video files.

Let’s explore some specific features that give VIDIZMO a competitive edge over other redaction software and services providers:

• Robust Security for Data Privacy and Compliance: Ensure data privacy and regulatory compliance with VIDIZMO Redactor’s secure, centralized repository. It includes industry-standard encryption, SSO integration, domain and IP restrictions, and granular access controls to manage your workflow efficiently.
• Flexible deployment support: VIDIZMO offers a variety of flexible deployment options, allowing you to choose between SaaS, cloud-based, on-premises, or hybrid deployment, based on your organization's needs.
• AI-Powered Search for Quick Data Retrieval: Quickly locate and redact specific faces, objects, or sensitive information with AI-enhanced search.
• Automated Redaction Capabilities: Automate your redaction with object detection & tracking, facial attribute prediction for age, gender, or emotions, and spoken PII redaction to remove sensitive spoken content.
• Multi-file Format Support: VIDIZMO Redactor supports over 255 file formats, enabling seamless redaction across various media types, including videos (MP4, AVI, MOV, WMV), audio (MP3, WAV, AAC), images (PNG, JPEG, BMP), and documents (PDF, DOCX, TXT).
• On-Demand Face Detection: Unlike many providers, VIDIZMO Redactor allows face detection upon video upload, enabling seamless redaction.
• Simultaneous Auto & Manual Redaction: While most redaction tools require separate executions for automatic and manual redaction, VIDIZMO Redactor allows both processes to be performed on a single file simultaneously, streamlining the workflow.

This blog article is part of our complete guide on redaction software. Do check it out.

People Also Ask

What is redaction software? 

Redaction software is a tool used to securely remove or obscure sensitive information from documents, images, videos, and audio. It typically offers features like text and image redaction, metadata removal, search and redact, and security measures like encryption. 

What is video redaction? 

Video redaction is the process of hiding or removing sensitive information from video files. The information can include PII, names, faces, email addresses, SSNs, license plates, and many other confidential information.  

What is the best redaction software?

The best redaction software automates your redaction process and comprehensively helps you redact sensitive information, including Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or Protected Health Information (PHI), from your video, audio, documents, and images to avoid data exposure, comply with data privacy regulations, and mitigate the risk of data breaches.

How do you choose the best redaction software?

Choosing the best redaction software requires considering key factors like AI-powered automation for efficiency and strong security features to protect sensitive data. Multi-format support ensures flexibility, while an intuitive interface enhances usability. Lastly, choose a scalable solution that integrates seamlessly with your existing systems.

Is redaction irreversible? 

The redaction process is irreversible if you do it on the original file. The obscured data cannot be recovered. However, the best way to keep the redacted data is to create a duplicate file and then conduct the redaction process on it.