DataDistiller™ Engine


Digital Confidence DataDistiller™ is a comprehensive & fast metadata removal engine which powers Digital Confidence's hidden data & metadata removal software products: ConfidentSend™, BatchPurifier™, MailValve EX™, and MailValve GX™.

DataDistiller™ is an independent engine which does not require Microsoft Office® or any other application to be installed in order to remove metadata / hidden data. DataDistiller™ Engine is able to remove metadata / hidden data from the following file formats:

  • Microsoft® Word 2007 Documents
  • Microsoft Excel® 2007 Workbooks
  • Microsoft PowerPoint® 2007 Presentations
  • OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Writer Text Documents
  • OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Calc Spreadsheets
  • OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Impress Presentations
  • OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Draw Drawings
  • PDF Documents
  • JPEG Images
  • JPEG 2000 Images
  • PNG Images
  • SVG Images
  • AVI Video Files
  • MP3 Audio Files
  • MP4 Files
  • WAV Audio Files
  • 3GP Files
  • XML/XSD/XSL Files

DataDistiller™ Engine is able to remove metadata / hidden data of the following types:


Document Properties

Applicable to Microsoft® Word, Microsoft Excel®, Microsoft PowerPoint®, OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Writer, OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Calc, OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Impress and OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Draw documents.

Document properties are metadata that include the following details: author name, title, subject, keywords, category, status, comments, revision number, and total editing time. Document properties may also include user defined custom properties, a non-standard metadata that can be added to a document.

Comments

Applicable to Microsoft® Word, Microsoft Excel®, Microsoft PowerPoint®, OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Writer, and OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Calc documents.

Comments that were added to the document. With each comment, the name of the user who added it and the date and time in which it was added are also saved.

Tracked Changes

Applicable to Microsoft® Word, Microsoft Excel®, OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Writer, and OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Calc documents.

Tracked changes are changes made to the document while the Track Changes option was enabled. This include inserted, deleted, modified, and moved text. Every change is saved with the name of the user who made the change, as well as the date and time in which the change occurred. If the tracked changes are not removed from the document, previous versions of the document can still be viewed.

Hidden Text

Applicable to Microsoft® Word documents.

Text can be formatted as hidden so it won't be printed. Hidden text will not appear on the screen as well unless the application is specifically set to show it.

Slide Notes

Applicable to Microsoft PowerPoint® and OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Impress documents.

Slide notes are notes that were added to the slides for oral presentation and are not visible in the slides themselves.

Document Versions

Applicable to OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Writer, OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Calc, OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Impress and OpenOffice.org / StarOffice™ Draw documents.

Several versions of the document can be saved by the user in a single file.

Custom XML

Applicable to Microsoft® Word, Microsoft Excel®, and Microsoft PowerPoint® documents.

Custom XML data can be added to a document by another application like a document management system. Custom XML can include Custom XML properties.

PDF Metadata

Applicable to PDF documents.

PDF documents typically contain document information and XMP metadata. In addition, due to performance considerations, deleted objects are sometimes left in the file and only marked as deleted. Although this makes them invisible when viewed in a standard PDF reader, it is still possible to retrieved them from the file.

There are several versions of PDF files. Currently, DataDistiller™ Engine can remove hidden data from some of the PDF versions, which are the most commonly used. Full support for all PDF versions will be added in the future.

JPEG Metadata

Applicable to JPEG images.

JPEG images typically contain the following types of metadata: EXIF (Exchangeable image file format), IPTC Information Interchange Model, XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform), and comments. JPEG can contain additional application specific hidden data.

JPEG metadata are added automatically by digital cameras, scanners, and image processing software. The metadata includes details such as the camera manufacturer and model, the date and time the photograph was taken, the camera settings, and the location (if GPS was used). Furthermore, digital cameras typically save a thumbnail of the image in the file, and many image manipulation software fail to update this thumbnail when the original image is modified. So even if the image is cropped, or otherwise modified to hide certain parts in it, the removed parts may still be visible in the thumbnail.

DataDistiller™ Engine can remove metadata from JPEG files without degrading the image quality.

JPEG 2000 Metadata

Applicable to JPEG 2000 images.

JPEG 2000 metadata can contain various details about the file author, the software used in its creation, and the time and date in which it was created. The metadata can also be structured in XMP format.

DataDistiller™ Engine can remove metadata from JPEG 2000 files without degrading the image quality.

PNG Metadata

Applicable to PNG images.

PNG metadata can contain various details about the image, such as the author, the editing software, and the time and date in which it was created. The metadata can also be structured within XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform).

DataDistiller™ Engine can remove metadata from PNG files without degrading the image quality.

SVG Metadata

Applicable to SVG images.

SVG metadata can contain various details about the image, such as the author, the editing software, and the time and date in which it was created.

DataDistiller™ Engine can remove metadata from SVG files without degrading the image quality.

AVI Metadata

Applicable to AVI video files.

AVI metadata can contain various details about the video, such as the author, the camera and software used, and the time and date in which it was created.

DataDistiller™ Engine can remove metadata from AVI files without degrading the video quality.

MP3 Metadata

Applicable to MP3 audio files.

MP3 metadata are typically structured in ID3 format and contains information such as the title, artist, album, genre, and track number.

DataDistiller™ Engine can remove metadata from MP3 files without degrading the sound quality.

MP4 Metadata

Applicable to MP4 video and audio files.

MP4 metadata can contain various details about the file author, the software used in its creation, and the time and date in which it was created. The metadata can also be structured in XMP format.

DataDistiller™ Engine can remove metadata from MP4 files without degrading the media quality.

3GP Metadata

Applicable to 3GP files.

3GP metadata can contain various details about the file author, the software used in its creation, and the time and date in which it was created.

DataDistiller™ Engine can remove metadata from 3GP files without degrading the media quality.

WAV Metadata

Applicable to WAV audio files.

WAV metadata can contain various details about the sound files, such as the author, the software used, and the time and date in which it was created. The metadata can also be structured in EXIF format.

DataDistiller™ Engine can remove metadata from WAV files without degrading the sound quality.

XML/XSD/XSL Comments

Applicable to XML/XSD/XSL files.

Comments that were added to the file.