Abstract: Disclosed are a method and apparatus for storing and/or digitizing documents that preserves the confidentiality of the documents. The technology includes a process, referred to herein as “shredding”, that extracts portions of a digitized document, such as a scanned document or an image file, to create “shreds.” A shred can be, for example, a field of a form, a portion of a photo, etc. In some embodiments where the source document includes confidential information, each individual shred does not include the confidential information and, with information of only one shred, a person cannot obtain the confidential information. As a result, while the source document needs to be stored in a secure fashion to prevent disclosure of the confidential information, the shreds can be stored in a non-secure fashion without risking disclosure of the confidential information.

Abstract: Disclosed are a method and apparatus for storing and/or digitizing documents that preserves the confidentiality of the documents. The technology includes a process, referred to herein as “shredding”, that extracts portions of a digitized document, such as a scanned document or an image file, to create “shreds.” A shred can be, for example, a field of a form, a portion of a photo, etc. In some embodiments where the source document includes confidential information, each individual shred does not include the confidential information and, with information of only one shred, a person cannot obtain the confidential information. As a result, while the source document needs to be stored in a secure fashion to prevent disclosure of the confidential information, the shreds can be stored in a non-secure fashion without risking disclosure of the confidential information.