To redact is to edit, or prepare for publishing. Frequently, a redacted document, such as a memo or e-mail message, has simply had personal (or possibly actionable) information deleted or blacked out; as a consequence, redacted is often used to describe documents from which sensitive information has been expunged.
The term is appearing more frequently in that usage because as technology has enabled information to be stored and shared more widely, legal, security, and privacy issues have arisen. As, increasingly, legislation (such as HIPAA , the Sarbanes-Oxley Act , and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ) is drafted to control the handling of personal information in public sources, it is likely that usage of the term redact will continue.
This was last updated in November 2004