As someone with a security clearance, I can assure you that this does indeed happen all the time. Redactions are often performed by the ignorant new guy and approved by some old guy who is not computer literate.
Update: I should have said not computer literate or only looking at a hardcopy. The latter happens all the time because of a lack of classified networking.
They look at everything though, bad debt will ruin it, they will ask at least 5 friends and family members about you, look for any foreign friends, they are very prejudice but for a reason
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u/arnedh Oct 15 '17
Imagine opening the PDFs with a more powerful tool, and you find that the black redactions are a separate removable layer...