[gota]

> they printed this data, scanned to PDF and sent the PDF via e-mail.

I guess it may not be in this case (low volume, text content), but this could be a tactic to generate hurdles for anyone attempting to use it in systematic fashion.

I've heard of a case where a state org was required to send some students a set of spreadsheets (I guess they required it).

They printed the spreadsheets, laid the pages out-of-order on a table (to be clear, a physical table, a flat surface made of wood with 4 legs) and took a picture with worse than average lighting and a skewed framing. Technically they complied. A person could, with some effort, read the contents of the spreadsheets. In practice, the students couldn't get to what they wanted (automated verification of the values in the spreadsheets)

TBH it had a bit of an urban legend vibe back when I heard it years ago, but I wouldn't doubt it

[pikrzyszto]

I think it was more about security/confidentiality - when you print and scan you exactly see what's that that you're sending. No hidden HTML elements, e-mail headers and stuff like that. And they blacked out some of the stuff I didn't need to see (again, with a permanent marker so hard to do it wrong).