Digital Practice of Law

Removing Metadata

(4-27-04) "Workshare on Tuesday released a new version of its collaboration software that lets enterprises manage changes in Microsoft Word documents reviewed and written by multiple authors.
Version 3.5 of Workshare 3 includes new tools for stripping out sensitive metadata embedded in Word documents, integrates with content management systems from Interwoven and Hummingbird, and provides automatic retrieval of documents sent via e-mail."

Word Confidential Metadata Notes Disclosed

3-5-04 - "A Microsoft Word document of SCO's suit against DaimlerChrysler, seen by CNET News.com, originally identified Bank of America as the defendant instead of the automaker. This revision and others in the document can be seen through powerful but often forgotten features in Microsoft Word . . . Hidden text indicates that SCO spent considerable time building a case against the bank. As some have learned the hard way, Word can also display the original version of a document and all subsequent changes."

Remove Metadata from Word 2003 Documents

Microsoft releases metadata removal tool
02/02/2004

"A year ago, 10 Downing Street published a dossier on Iraq's security and intelligence organisations. It was cited by none other than Colin Powell in his address to the United Nations. Then a lecturer in politics at Cambridge University discovered that much of the 19-page document was copied from three different articles, one written by a graduate student.

How did he know? In the document there was a listing of the last 10 edits of the document, showing the names of the people who worked on the file. These logs are normally hidden and cannot be viewed directly in Word.

MS Word is notorious for containing private information in file headers, but not any longer. Microsoft has quietly released a tool to scrub leaky metadata from documents edited with its software. The Remove Hidden Data Add-In will permanently remove hidden and collaboration data, such as change tracking and comments, from MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint files. For Windows XP/Office 2003 only, we should add."

We Site Locator: Office 2003/XP Add-in: Remove Hidden Data . "With this add-in you can permanently remove hidden data and collaboration data, such as change tracking and comments, from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint files."