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Security & Privacy

Auto Redact PDF: Find Personal Info, Free

Auto redact a PDF free: the emails, phone numbers, card, bank and ID numbers on every page are found, you untick what should stay, and the rest is removed — not covered. On your device.

Auto-Redact Personal Info

Settings appear once you add a PDF.

Advanced 3
Keep the rest of the text searchable
Also remove the author and other metadata
Quality of redacted pages

Ctrl + Enter runs it ·

Bytes sent anywhere: 0 B

Keyboard shortcuts

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Ctrl V
Paste files to add them
Ctrl Enter
Run the tool
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  • 100% private Your PDF never leaves this device. Everything runs in your browser.
  • No limits No file-size cap, no watermark, no sign-up and no daily quota. Free.
  • Works offline Once this page has loaded, the tool keeps working without a connection.

How to auto redact a PDF free

  1. Add your PDF: Drop the PDF. Every page is searched for emails, phone numbers, card, SSN, IBAN, Aadhaar and PAN numbers.

  2. Check the settings: Check the list. Untick anything that should stay, and add names or words of your own.

  3. Save the result: Press Redact selected. Each one is removed from the file for good, and the pages you didn’t touch stay as they were.

Why it doesn’t upload

Automatic redaction means reading every word of a sensitive document. If that happens on a server, the server has read every word. Here the search and the redaction both run in your browser tab.

Check it in your browser’s Network tab

Worth knowing

  • Only text the PDF actually contains can be found. Scanned pages are pictures — make them searchable with OCR first, or draw boxes by hand.
  • Pattern matching finds most personal data but can’t understand context. Always check the list, and look through the result before sending.
  • Card, IBAN and Aadhaar numbers are checked with their check digits, so random numbers aren’t flagged.
  • Pages with redactions are rebuilt as images; the rest of their text is put back as invisible, searchable text.

Under the hood

What happens to your file

pdf.js extracts the text with positions, and pattern matching finds email addresses, phone numbers, card, SSN, IBAN, Aadhaar and PAN numbers — card, IBAN and Aadhaar numbers are checked against their check digits, so random digits are not flagged. Each hit becomes a padded rectangle you can check and change. The redaction itself is the same as Redact PDF: pages burned in, hidden data on them removed, the file rewritten by qpdf.

Runs on pdf.jspdf-libqpdf

Reference: qpdf manual

Why auto-redact personal information on your own device?

Finding every email address, phone number and account number in a long PDF by eye is slow and easy to get wrong. Auto-Redact searches every page for them at once, shows you each match with its page number, and removes the ones you choose — for good, not under a box.

Because the search runs in your browser, the document full of personal data never goes to a service to be cleaned. That matters most for exactly the files this tool is for: customer lists, case files, HR records and statements.

Common uses for automatic PDF redaction

  • GDPR and data-subject requests

    Release a document to one person with everyone else’s emails and phone numbers removed.

  • Sharing support tickets or call logs

    Strip customer contact details before a file goes to a vendor or a training set.

  • Removing Aadhaar and PAN card numbers

    Aadhaar and PAN numbers are recognized and checked with their check digits, so a salary slip or rent agreement can go out with them removed — see hide Aadhaar and PAN numbers in a PDF.

  • Bank and card statements

    Card numbers and IBANs are validated before they’re flagged, so ordinary figures aren’t.

  • Research and case studies

    Anonymize interview transcripts or case files exported as PDF before publishing.

Tips for redacting personal data automatically

  1. Add names in Also redact these words or names. Pattern matching finds numbers and addresses, not people.
  2. Go through the list before saving. Untick anything that should stay, like your own company’s phone number.
  3. Scanned pages are pictures with no text to search — make them searchable with OCR PDF first, or draw boxes in Redact PDF.
  4. Turn on metadata removal too; an author field can identify someone the pages no longer do.
  5. Open the result and search for a removed value. If nothing is found, it’s gone.

Questions

What personal information does auto redaction find?

Email addresses, phone numbers, payment card numbers, US Social Security numbers, IBANs, Indian Aadhaar and PAN numbers, passport numbers after the word “passport”, IP addresses and dates of birth — plus any words or names you type in.

Can I review what gets redacted?

Yes. Every match is listed with its page number, grouped by type, with a tick box. Nothing is removed until you press Redact selected.

Is automatic redaction reliable enough for legal documents?

It’s a fast first pass. Pattern matching can miss unusual formats or flag false positives, so treat the list as a draft, open the result, and use Redact PDF to draw boxes over anything it missed.

Does it work on scanned PDFs?

Only once they have a text layer. A scan is a picture of a page, so there’s no text to search until OCR reads it.

Read more about this

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