by Michael Ross
Paper or electronic document identification is often overlooked because it is assumed that the document will be maintained inside the office. The lack of identification becomes the rule rather than the exception. Sometimes, the use of a rubber stamps or a watermark on the document is assumed to adequately protect it. The thought of manually marking multiple copies — and particularly every page of the document — with appropriate indicia is far too much work and therefore, dismissed. So begins the lifecycle of the unidentified paper or unmarked PDF document created from Word that will be copied approximately 19 times based on substantial published research.
Paper document management by rubber stamp is an insecure method that carries numerous inherent risks. Further, savings of many hours of time per year can be achieved by eliminating just one trip a day to a copy machine and using an automated document identification process. To paraphrase, preventing a draft from becoming an “original” is priceless. Unless a rubber stamp obliterates part of the content of the document, it cannot maintain the document’s integrity and keep its use consistent with the writer’s intent. Likewise, the failure to properly mark an electronic document (PDF) when it is created exposes the document to the to virtually the same risks.
If a paper document is to be secure and protected – particularly one with multiple pages – each page of the document must be identified in a manner that precludes alteration. Certainly a rubber stamp doesn’t work here. Where multiple copies of the document are intended for different recipients, those copies should be similarly marked to indicate the recipient and/or purpose, e.g. “Client Copy,” “Marketing,” “Privileged,” Not for Release, etc. Otherwise, at least the first page of each copy needs to be stamped – which is a risky practice.
This form of paper document management is usually accomplished in one of three ways: rubber stamps, header/footer text or manually inserted and removed watermarks. If the rubber stamp form of document management is used with any degree of effectiveness, the stamp collection is exhaustive and unwieldy. While the header or footer text affords some degree of identification, it does not reach the level of true document protection. Watermarks by their nature afford some protection. However, they must be manually applied and removed and are subject to drop-out by copier and scanner settings.
Marking a document that is more than couple of pages is frequently limited to stamping the first page. If that marking (1) is only on the first page and (2) in the margin, the document is one that, in paper form, can have its purpose or intent easily altered. Once the indicia is removed, the quality of digital copiers make distinction between the true “original” and a duplicate without marking, almost impossible. This holds true for documents that are marked with visible watermarks as well since the simple changing of a contrast setting removes the gray watermark and leaves the document intact.
A recent review of the Epson GT-S50 scanner on Amazon noted: “. . .The Epson also has the ability to drop out colors, which is useful when scanning something printed on colored paper. It would also be useful if you need to remove a red “confidential” or “top secret” stamp from a borrowed document. 
” See the Epson GT-S50 review by W.B. Halper.
Each business document is copied almost 20 times. Given this fact, it is difficult to comprehend why any document is produced without some marking reflecting the document’s purpose or intent. Rubber stamps in the margins do not protect the document from alteration or misuse for obvious reasons. Further, since the rubber stamp process of document identification requires manual application, it is usually not done because of the inherent inconvenience.
PDF files, in most cases, originate from a Word document. If the PDF file is unmarked, then the document can be printed without any restrictive indicia embedded in the text of the document. From this point, the document can be altered and rescanned to a PDF. Thus, the PDF file is no more secure than the original Word document if it is not marked in an manner that precludes alteration of the printed result. Marking PDF files at the time of creation as well as marking printed documents WHEN then are printed is the only way to reduce document security risk.
So, the choice is – court risk or avoid it. It’s easier to protect your documents at the time of origination instead of taking the chance that the document’s future will never be cloudy. StampIt for Word provides an easy, economic resource to automate paper and PDF document security and put an end to using rubber stamps. (http://www.stampitnet.com). StampIt provides next generation business document management for print and PDF output. Make the choice to try it now – for free.
StampIt is an easy-to-use tool for dealing with the paper element of <a href=”http://www.stampitnet.com”>document management</a>. Rubber stamps can be thrown away and fiddling with headers/footers or watermarks is over. Get the FREE TRIAL and see how your paper and <a href=”http://www.stampitnet.com”>PDF documents</a> should be protected.
