Is there a way to delete revision history?

Question

A new user recently asked a question and included their personal contact information. This isn't something you normally want posted on the internet, so I edited it out. However, the info is still clearly there in the revision history.

Is there a way to permanently delete previous edits? I've often seen where someone posts personal information, or details that would make it easy for an employer to identify them. This usually gets edited out quickly, but anyone who is looking, including email harvesters, can still easily find the data. It would be good to be able to permanently remove that information sometimes, though that power should probably be restricted to moderators.

Answer 1

This Meta.SE post (h/t Masked Man) has the details, but for your purposes: edit it out and flag for moderator attention, pointing out the problem. It takes two moderators to redact so there can be a delay (due to time zones), so the sooner you flag the sooner we can get the process started.

We are most concerned about exposure of (a) credentials (like passwords) and (b) sensitive third-party information -- somebody shares somebody else's email address, for example. A user's own email address isn't as urgent (it's not, for all practical purposes, private information, and he did post it), but we'll generally redact them if asked to.