It’s probably a PDF file but probably not created with Acrobat. Acrobat actually has redaction features which will purge the redacted text.
What they probably did was they just took a word doc, highlighted the text black so it isn’t readable in printed form, and then saved it as a PDF under the assumption that the file could not be edited to make the text visible again. Basically, very low tech literacy, oblivious to the fact that the text is all still there.
Tangentially related, but potentially also worth mentioning that Adobe hasn’t controlled the PDF standard for a number of years now. It’s now an open format managed by ISO, though Adobe still owns a few patents related to PDFs that make Acrobat a pain in the ass and viable alternatives hard to find.
Secondary fun fact to the above is that MacOS has its own built-in PDF viewer, by virtue of the entire UX of the OS being built on the PDF standard, entirely separate from Adobe’s implementation.
It’s probably a PDF file but probably not created with Acrobat. Acrobat actually has redaction features which will purge the redacted text.
What they probably did was they just took a word doc, highlighted the text black so it isn’t readable in printed form, and then saved it as a PDF under the assumption that the file could not be edited to make the text visible again. Basically, very low tech literacy, oblivious to the fact that the text is all still there.
Tangentially related, but potentially also worth mentioning that Adobe hasn’t controlled the PDF standard for a number of years now. It’s now an open format managed by ISO, though Adobe still owns a few patents related to PDFs that make Acrobat a pain in the ass and viable alternatives hard to find.
Secondary fun fact to the above is that MacOS has its own built-in PDF viewer, by virtue of the entire UX of the OS being built on the PDF standard, entirely separate from Adobe’s implementation.
Interesting but even more disturbing…