Specifying File Types to Search for Sensitive Data
The Search these File Types setting allows you to let Identity Finder search only common file types, all filterable file types, all files, or a custom list:
Only Common File Types (this is the default option): This option will perform the quickest search while also searching the files on your computer most likely to contain personal information. When this option is selected, Identity Finder will search though text files (including most Instant Messenger logs), Microsoft Office files, Adobe Acrobat PDF files, web page documents (such as HTML files), and other common formats. Even if your computer has the ability to search metadata stored within a file such as when a photo was taken for a jpg file or the artist information in an mp3 file, that information will not be searched when this option is selected.
All Filterable File Types: This option searches through all files that your computer has the ability to search via an internal Identity Finder filter or via a Windows IFilter. When this option is selected, Identity Finder will search all common file types plus any other file type for which you have installed an IFilter. For example, if your camera software installed the ability for Windows to read information from a jpg file about when a photo was taken or a drawing program installed the ability for Windows to read the text from shapes and other visual elements, then that information will also be searched.
Image File Types: When the OCR Image Search module is installed, this option is available. This option specifies that Optical Character Recognition (OCR) should be used to search for text within images. The following file types are supported: bmp, dcx, gif, jbig2, jp2, jpeg, jpf, jpg, jpg2000, jpm, jpx, max, pcx, png, tfx, tif, tiff, xif, xiff, and xps. If the DPI of an image is less than 75 or greater than 2400, the recognition may fail and log an error.
Custom File Type List: This option allows you to select the files that Identity Finder will search. For more information, please see Manage Custom File Type List.
Search All Files: This option is the most comprehensive (and therefore slowest) option because Identity Finder will try and extract all the text from any type of file that does not have an internal Identity Finder filter or an IFilter. No matter what type of file or what the file is named, when this option is selected, Identity Finder will search inside of it.
Note: To view the list of Common Files, select Custom and click the Manage button; the full list of extensions is the list of Filterable file types and the selected (checked) extensions are Common.
To allow Identity Finder to search files for which you have installed an IFilter, you must select the All filterable file types, Custom file type list, or Search all files radio button.
Note: If you would like to override the default filter that is used for searching files click the Override button. For example, you might want to add additional extensions to be considered text, such as *.bak. In this case you may override default search filters so that those file types are treated as text. See the Override Default Search Filters help topic for more information.
Note: Identity Finder does not interpret audio or video, therefore a picture of a password or a song with lyrics about your password will not be found.
