How to remove contact details from a CV, including the hidden ones

To remove contact details from CV files properly, start with the visible text, but don't stop there. Clear the headers and footers, text boxes, hyperlinks, comments and tracked changes. Then strip the document properties with Word's Document Inspector, export the PDF without document properties, and give the file a name that doesn't identify the candidate. Finally, open the finished PDF and search it. Most leaks happen because someone checked the page they could see and not the file they actually sent. Below is the manual method, step by step, along with the risks and an automated alternative.

Why it matters

Agencies remove candidate contact details from client submissions for three practical reasons:

• Protecting the introduction. Your terms of business may protect your fee if a client hires someone you introduced, but arguing about it afterwards is slow and damages the relationship. Not handing over a direct phone number keeps the conversation going through you.
• Sharing only what's needed. A hiring manager at shortlist stage doesn't need a candidate's home address or personal mobile. Data protection law expects you to share no more personal data than the purpose needs.
• Candidate trust. Candidates notice when their details go further than they agreed.

Removing contact details isn't the same as anonymising a CV. Employers, dates and projects can still point to one person. If you need a blind CV, read our guide to anonymised and blind CVs as well.

Where contact details hide in a CV

How to remove contact details from CV files in Word

Menu names vary slightly between Word versions, but the steps are the same.

Step 1: Work on a copy and clear the revision history

Save a copy and work only on that. Keep the original unchanged and stored separately. On the Review tab, switch off Track Changes, then accept or reject every change and delete all comments. Tracked deletions are still in the file. A deleted phone number can sit there as a revision.

Step 2: Search the body text

Use Find for the obvious patterns: "@", "+44" or your local country code, "07", "linkedin", "github", "http" and "www". Search for the candidate's surname too. It often appears in a personal domain or an email signature. Word's search doesn't always reach every header, footer and text box, so step 3 isn't optional.

Step 3: Check headers, footers and text boxes by hand

Double-click the header and footer on the first page, then on later pages. A CV with "Different First Page" turned on, or with several sections, has more than one header, and each needs checking. In two-column templates, open the Selection Pane (Home > Select) to list every shape and text box, including ones that sit off the page edge.

Step 4: Remove hyperlinks

Display text can hide a personal URL. Select the body text (Ctrl+A) and press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to turn every field, hyperlinks included, into plain text. Then check whether the visible text itself, such as "github.com/janesmith", still needs deleting.

Step 5: Check images and alt text

Delete photos, QR codes and signatures unless the client has asked for a photo. Right-click any image you keep and look at its alt text. Templates sometimes put the candidate's name there.

Step 6: Run the Document Inspector

Go to File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document. Inspect, then use Remove All for:

• Comments, Revisions and Versions
• Document Properties and Personal Information
• Hidden Text
• Invisible Content
• Custom XML Data

Be careful with "Headers, Footers, and Watermarks". Remove All there deletes your agency header and footer as well, not just the candidate's. Clear the headers by hand in step 3 instead. Afterwards, open File > Info again and confirm the Author and Last Modified By fields don't show the candidate.

Step 7: Save as PDF without document properties

Use File > Save As, choose PDF, open Options and untick "Document properties" under the non-printing information settings. Give the file a reference-based name, such as "REF-2041_Data-Engineer_Agency.pdf".

Step 8: Check the PDF you're actually sending

Open the PDF and search again for "@", phone fragments and the candidate's surname. Open the document properties in your PDF reader and check Title and Author. Then select all the text, copy it and paste it into a plain text editor. White text, text hidden under shapes and leftover sidebar content all show up there.

Never redact with black boxes or white text

Drawing a black rectangle over a phone number, or changing its font colour to white, hides it from the eye but not from the file. Anyone can select it, copy it or search for it. Dedicated PDF redaction tools do remove the underlying text. It's simpler and safer to remove details in the source document before you export.

What goes wrong when something slips through

• The client calls the candidate directly. Even with good terms of business, you're now negotiating about who introduced whom.
• More personal data than necessary has gone out. That may need explaining to the candidate, and under your data protection policy.
• Referees' details are shared without their knowledge. They're third parties who never agreed to be in a client's inbox.
• The file name gives it away. A perfectly cleaned "Jane-Smith-CV.pdf" isn't anonymous.

The CV redaction glossary entry explains the difference between contact removal, redaction and anonymisation. To see which personal details a CV contains before you start, paste its text into our free CV personal data checker; it runs in your browser.

How long the manual method takes

It's eight steps per CV, and the checks in steps 3, 6 and 8 are the ones that get skipped on a busy Friday. If the full routine takes five minutes per CV and your desk sends 60 CVs a month, that's five hours a month. That's illustrative arithmetic, so time your own. The bigger cost is the one leak that comes from skipping it.

The automated way

In CVPitch you choose a contact-removal policy for each client variant, or for each submission. The options are removing personal email, personal phone numbers, personal address and candidate-owned links, and optionally replacing the candidate's name with an agency reference. The policy applies to the generated DOCX and PDF, including hidden document metadata, and CVPitch checks each generated file for the removed details before it is ready. The original CV is stored separately and never overwritten. File names come from a pattern based on the candidate reference rather than the candidate's name.

Two safeguards matter here. First, you review the draft PDF before approving, so you see exactly what the client will see. Second, approval is tied to the contact-removal policy as well as to the facts. If someone changes the policy after approval, the submission needs approving again. Unusual identifiers, such as a personal blog named in a project description, still deserve a human look. The guide shows where the policy sits, and our security page covers how files are stored and deleted.

Frequently asked questions

How do I remove personal information from a Word document's properties?

Use File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document, then Remove All next to Document Properties and Personal Information. Check File > Info afterwards to confirm the Author field is clean.

Does saving a Word file as PDF remove the metadata?

Not necessarily. Word can carry the title and author into the PDF. Untick "Document properties" in the PDF options when you save, then check the PDF's document properties in your reader.

Should I remove the candidate's name as well as their contact details?

Only when the client agreement or your process requires a blind or anonymous profile. In that case, replace the name with a candidate reference everywhere, file name included, and remember that career history can still identify the person.

Is removing contact details enough for GDPR?

It helps with data minimisation, but it doesn't settle your obligations on its own. You still need a lawful basis, a privacy notice, sensible retention and the candidate's agreement to each submission. See our general guide to GDPR and CV data. It isn't legal advice.

Bottom line

Contact details hide in at least ten places in a typical CV. Clean the source copy, run the Document Inspector, export the PDF without its properties, rename the file and search the final PDF. Or set the policy once per client and check the draft before you approve.