Anonymization What is data anonymization?

Anonymization of data involves transforming it in such a way as to make it impossible to identify the data subject. This can be implemented by:

• deleting personal data,
• masking key information,
• replacing sensitive data with symbols or general terms,
• encryption.

Unlike pseudonymization, which allows data to be restored to its original form, anonymization is an irreversible process.

Various types of information are subject to anonymization, especially those that can lead to the identification of an individual. These include:

• Personal information: name, surname, personal ID number, residential address, date of birth.
• Contact information: phone numbers, e-mail addresses.
• Financial information: bank account numbers, transaction data, income information.
• Medical data: medical history, test results, treatment information.
• Biometric data: fingerprints, retinal scans, DNA data.
• Professional information: position, place of work, salary.
  Location data: GPS location history, IP addresses.

Documents that often need to be anonymized include a wide range of official, administrative, financial and legal files regulated by national laws such as the Data Protection Act, GDPR, and the Access to Public Information Act. These documents include, among others:

• Administrative documents, administrative decisions, minutes of meetings, inspection reports or official letters.
• Financial documents, such as invoices and receipts: With financial and personal data.
• Medical documents – containing detailed information about patients, or documents related to the process of developing drugs, new therapies and medical technologies, which may contain information covered by company secrets and industrial secrets.
• Agreements and contracts: with details of the parties to the agreement.
• Legal documents – including court records, agreements, contracts or legal opinions, which often contain information protected by professional secrecy.
• Employee records: including personal and professional data.

Anonymization is important for many entities, both public and private. Depending on the type of business and applicable laws, each of these entities has different requirements for anonymizing documents.

Public entities:

• City and municipal offices: any personal data contained in documents published in the Public Information Bulletin, such as administrative decisions, resolutions, minutes, must be properly anonymized to protect citizens’ privacy. Regulations require public administrations to anonymize data in situations where it is not necessary for the performance of public functions.
• Environmental inspectorates: like government offices, these institutions publish reports, administrative decisions and minutes that may contain personal data.
• Courts and prosecutors’ offices: published verdicts, court hearing minutes, administrative decisions, and other documents related to legal proceedings often contain data of litigants, witnesses or defense attorneys, which must be anonymized to protect the privacy of those involved in legal processes.
• Ministries: must ensure that the public documents released do not violate the protection of personal data, business secrets and other sensitive information.

Why? Because under the GDPR and the Law on Access to Public Information, these entities are required to protect personal data. Before documents are published in the Public Information Bulletin, they must be properly anonymized so as not to violate citizens’ privacy.

Private entities:

• Financial sector: for financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies, data anonymization is essential to protect customer privacy and ensure compliance with the GDPR
• Healthcare and life science: for healthcare entities (e.g., hospitals, clinics, medical laboratories) and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, anonymization is key. Regulations such as HIPAA in the U.S. and GDPR in Europe mandate the protection of medical data, including reports, test results, and patient treatment histories, to ensure privacy and legal compliance.

Anonymization of documents and personal data plays a key role in protecting privacy and regulatory compliance. Its main advantages include:

• Privacy security – prevents unauthorized access to and use of data in an unlawful manner.
• Minimizing the risk of data leakage – reduces the possibility of identity theft and other cyber threats.
• Meeting the requirements of GDPR – data that has been effectively anonymized is no longer considered personal data.
• Secure data sharing – allows publication of documents for research, statistical or journalistic purposes without violating privacy.

Manual anonymization of documents is performed by data protection officers, who must carefully review documents and blacken sensitive information themselves. The process is labor-intensive and inefficient, and its precision is crucial – even a small error can lead to the accidental disclosure of sensitive data.

With automation, organizations can anonymize huge amounts of data in less time, which is especially important in large companies and public institutions that process large data sets. However, automation requires the right tools or software that can effectively identify sensitive data.

There are many benefits to automating the anonymization process with specialized tools such as Redact. By using artificial intelligence, these tools are able to:

• Automatically recognize specific types of information throughout the document, such as first name, last name, address etc., and anonymize all occurrences of this type of information throughout the document with a single click
• Recognize and anonymize data in multiple languages: which is especially important for international organizations, e.g. the name John can appear as Johann, Hans, John, Giovanni, Juan, Jean, etc.
• Process large volumes of documents in a short period of time: which significantly increases work efficiency, e.g., anonymizing the name John in a 1000-page document will take the same amount of time as manually anonymizing that name on one page of the document.

For example, at a company in the legal sector, automated anonymization allows court records to be quickly prepared for publication, eliminating the risk of disclosing litigants’ data. In medical facilities, AI-based tools are able to anonymize thousands of patient records, which is crucial for compliance with GDPR and HIPAA regulations.

Redact is a modern, secure and intuitive automatic document anonymization solution that addresses the growing needs of businesses and public institutions for data protection and compliance with regulations such as GDPR.

Redact is a tool that stands out from the rest thanks to its advanced technology, automatically detecting and anonymizing sensitive information in documents. It supports up to 18 different file formats, including PDF, Word, Excel, xml or PowerPoint. With Redact, users can apply predefined redaction patterns and accurately anonymize personal information, images and other selected document elements according to individual requirements. This way, you don’t have to waste time manually searching and blurring data – Redact will do it for you!

The Redact system provides full flexibility in working on documents, allowing users to customize the anonymization process according to their needs. With this flexibility, team collaboration becomes smoother and more efficient:

• Automatic anonymization allows data to be quickly anonymized without manual searching, saving the team time.
• Working on a draft version allows different parts of the document to be processed simultaneously by team members, speeding up the process.
• Easy restoration of information when needed, providing flexibility in customizing documents.

Redact’s key features:

• Automatic identification of 23 types of sensitive data: the system detects and anonymizes data, including TIN, contact information, bank card numbers and other sensitive data, and can work with documents in nearly 80 languages.
• Speed and efficiency: Redact can anonymize hundreds of pages of documents in minutes, significantly saving the organization time and resources.
• Full regulatory compliance: complies with GDPR, HIPAA and other data protection regulations.
• Security at the highest level: Redact offers features such as data encryption, access control and reporting on user activities.
• No installation required – everything is done through a browser, providing access from any device. Redact combines advanced features with simple operation.
• Support teamwork, by enabling collaboration on draft versions of documents and tracking progress with reports.

With Redact the anonymization process becomes simpler, faster and more secure. This solution is ideal for both private companies and public institutions that need to regularly process and publish data in a manner that complies with current regulations.