The folks in Redmond have finally released a program which apparently removes hidden data from Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations.
After months – or is it years? – of kvetching from this corner, and dozens of documents that Microsoft posted on its own website laden with potentially embarrassing hidden information, the folks in Redmond have finally released a program which apparently removes hidden data from Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. (I say “apparently” because I’m genetically predisposed to being skeptical about such claims.)
You can get your own copy from Microsoft here.
I asked the folks at Payne Consulting for a quick reaction to the new program. (Payne Consulting, you may recall, makes Metadata Assistant, which has long been – and continues to be – my favorite program for removing hidden data from docs.) Here’s what Payne says:
“It’s great that Microsoft got something out there. It will be good for a person who doesn’t have very complex documents. You either have to remove everything – or visit each instance where potential hidden data occurs. This means every header and footer in every section of the document, every field including ListNum and Sequence, stopping at each and indicating whether to keep or remove the data. On a sample legal document that I ran it took almost 100 clicks to process. I don’t see people having the patience to do this – or more – for every one of their documents.
“Further, it doesn’t integrate with e-mail. That’s where most people have the problem of sending out hidden data unintentionally. They attach a file and click Send. Third-party products such as Metadata Assistant remind you to clean or analyze the document before sending.
“There is also no integration with document management systems in the Microsoft add-in where the other Metadata removal products have this integration.
“Some other observations:
It only works with Office XP or later. There are many people still on Word 97 and 2000 that need the ability to remove information.
It doesn’t remove all types of hidden text. Text formatted as hidden in the body of the document is removed while other locations remain, so it could give a false sense of security.
The Microsoft product deals with custom properties but for some reason they decided to skip built-in document properties.
The results are shown in Notepad while other products offer an RTF, Word, TXT or XML report.
When asked to rename the file, they don’t give you the current name so you have to remember it.
Microsoft’s add-in treats bookmarks as hidden text. That’s debatable.
It doesn’t handle routing slips
“It’s good that Microsoft has realized that accidental disclosure of confidential information is a serious issue. This add-in is a step in the right direction; however, it’s time consuming to go through every piece of data, there is no analysis without removing, it does not integrate with other third-party products, and it is unsupported.
“I know with our product we need a full staff of people to handle customization requests and questions. The hidden data or metadata problem is not static. If you release a product, you must make continuous improvements to it. Will Microsoft?”
