How to redact an email before forwarding or sharing it
You want to forward an email, or share a screenshot of one, with a name, an address or a phone number covered up. The catch is that most of what leaks from an email isn't the part you were looking at.
Emails get shared constantly: forwarded to a colleague, pasted into a ticket, screenshotted for a group chat. Usually one or two details need hiding, and usually there's more sensitive information in the message than the sender realises.
What's actually sensitive in an email
- Email addresses (yours and other people's), which double as usernames and are worth harvesting.
- Names, phone numbers and postal addresses in the body or signature.
- The signature block: direct lines, job titles, office addresses.
- The quoted chain. This is the big one, see below.
The quoted chain leaks more than the message
When you forward an email, everything below your new note usually comes too: the entire back-and-forth history, other people's addresses, earlier attachments referenced inline, and remarks never meant for your recipient. People scroll to the top, redact the visible part, and send, forgetting that the thread underneath is fully intact. Before you forward, delete the quoted history you don't need, or redact a screenshot of just the part you want to share rather than forwarding the live message.
Two ways to share it safely
Share a screenshot of the email
Often the cleanest option: screenshot only the portion you want to share, then black out the sensitive bits in the image. Because you're sharing a flat image of a specific region, the quoted chain and headers below simply aren't in it. Redact the screenshot with a tool that outputs a flattened image so the black bars can't be lifted, see how to black out text on a screenshot.
Share the text
If the recipient needs the wording, copy the relevant text out, redact it, and paste that, rather than forwarding the whole message. This drops the headers and history automatically and lets you cover names and numbers in the text itself.
Doing it with Private Redaction
The browser extension handles both, right in your browser, with nothing uploaded:
- Right-click a screenshot of the email (or drag to capture just the part on screen) and choose Redact. It auto-detects email addresses, phone numbers and names, and you can black out anything else by hand. The download is a flat image.
- Select text in the email and choose "Redact selected text" to get a cleaned version to paste, with addresses and numbers removed.
Mistakes to avoid
- Forwarding with the chain intact. Trim the quoted history first.
- A black box that isn't flattened. On a screenshot, export a new image and confirm the box can't be moved.
- Blurring addresses. Blur is reversible (why); use solid black.
- Forgetting the signature. It often holds the direct dial and office address you meant to hide.
Private Redaction redacts a screenshot of an email, or the selected text, in your browser, nothing uploaded, output flattened. Add it to Chrome, or use the web app for documents.
Takeaways
- The quoted chain under a forward usually leaks more than the message; trim it first.
- Sharing a screenshot of just the relevant part avoids the headers and history entirely.
- Use solid, flattened black, not blur, and don't forget the signature block.
Related: how to black out text on a screenshot · blur vs black box