QA finding
Sample policy: a published document carries tracked changes or hidden content
QA Error Severity: High
Part of the audit Custom policies. Finding id: qa.policyDocumentProperties.
What it costs you
Anyone who downloads the file can read earlier wording, deleted passages, comments or hidden data. That is how drafts and internal figures leak.
What to do
Publish a clean copy: accept or reject all changes, remove comments and hidden content, and replace the file.
What it checks
- Document property rule broken
How to fix it
Replace the file with a clean copy
- Open the original in the program it was made with.
- Accept or reject every tracked change and delete the comments.
- Remove hidden text, sheets, slides and notes that are not meant for the public.
- Save, upload the file to the same address and check that old copies are not kept under another address.
How to check: Recheck the document: this finding is gone.
A real case
The UN released the Mehlis report on the Hariri assassination as a Word file with tracked changes, and readers could see that the names of senior Syrian officials had been deleted from the final text. The discovery caused an uproar at the UN, which said the staff involved had not known the file kept its edits.