What the redaction certificate proves

Omitly’s certificate is a precise instrument. It is worth being exact about what it does and does not tell a recipient, because overstating it would be worse than saying nothing.

The short version

A tamper-evident record of the checks Omitly ran on this document — not a determination of legal compliance, and not a claim about your other copies or backups.

What it proves

• What Omitly recorded. The audit report records each region and the result of Omitly’s own check. It is the producer’s record, so read its verdict and limitations.
• The file has not been altered since it was sealed. The seal is computed over the exact bytes of the delivered PDF — the visible content and the embedded report together. A single changed byte makes the seal fail on verification.

What it does not prove

• It does not independently show what was removed. A seal shows the file and its report are unchanged. Anyone can seal a file with their own key, so to check a file yourself, use Check.

• It is integrity, not identity. The signing key is generated on the machine that sealed the file and never leaves it. A valid seal tells you the file is unchanged since it was sealed — it does not, on its own, tell you who sealed it. Omitly shows the key’s fingerprint so you can compare it out of band when origin matters.

• It is about one file, not your whole record-keeping. It is not a claim about other copies, drafts, email or backups you hold elsewhere.

• It is not a legal determination. The certificate is a technical artifact. It does not decide whether you have met a particular legal or regulatory obligation — that remains your responsibility and, where relevant, your lawyer’s.

Why the honesty is the point

Anyone can draw a black box and call a document redacted. The certificate is useful precisely because it claims something narrow: these are the checks that ran on this file, and the file is unchanged since. A recipient can confirm the second on their own machine. See How to verify a redacted PDF.