BlackStone Discovery has developed a native redaction tool with the promised ability to review and redact entire spreadsheets in a matter of seconds.

The Silicon Valley eDiscovery consulting and litigation support provider says its LineOut offering takes redaction to the next level by reading entire rows instead of individual cells. It says while other common redaction tools are comparable in their use of search terms to target information, they are unable to remove large blocks of data at the row level. For bulk redactions where efficiency is key, LineOut saves countless hours.

“There’s usefulness to be found in simpler redaction tools, but there’s nothing available that is as fast and cost-effective as LineOut,” says Jeff Carpenter, the lead developer of LineOut. 

“The need for accurate and affordable row redaction was a problem that long beguiled our clients, and LineOut was specifically designed to meet that need.”

LineOut is a solution for redacting large tables where each row is an entry. This pertains specifically to databases, which BlackStone says LineOut combs through faster than any other redaction tool. For highly customised redaction requests, LineOut can be used in tandem with BlackStone’s single-cell redaction tools to optimize results.

Reviewers with access to industry standard redaction technology can typically redact between 20 to 30 spreadsheets an hour. On average, LineOut redacts 727 spreadsheets an hour (over 12 per minute).

“For our clients, LineOut is a game changer,” Thomas Gersey, BlackStone’s Director of Client Solutions, said. “Finally, they have a cost-effective solution for the nightmare of imaging and redacting robust spreadsheets.”

BlackStone also knows that failing to redact hidden sheets can create a serious threat to PII.  LineOut automatically redacts all hidden sheets. LineOut also removes all external links and scrubs metadata, source code, and comments, ensuring that the data is permanently removed and unrecoverable. Lastly, spoliation issues are avoided as reviewers always keep the original file protected in order to review and defend redactions.

https://www.blackstonediscovery.com/lineout/