PII Redaction
PII redaction is the automatic removal or masking of personally identifiable information — names, emails, SSNs, credit cards — before data is sent to an AI model or stored in logs.
AI workflows often touch PII: a customer ticket with a name, an invoice with a card number, a chat with a phone number. Sending that data to third-party models, or keeping it in plaintext logs, expands your privacy and breach surface area dramatically. PII redaction sits at two layers: outbound (before data hits a model or external API, sensitive fields get replaced with tokens) and storage (logs and audit trails store redacted versions, with access to unredacted data gated by role). Done well, your AI works on real meaning without ever seeing real identities.
Example
Customer message: 'My card 4242-4242-4242-4242 was charged twice for order #1234'. After redaction the model sees: 'My card [CARD_1] was charged twice for order [ORDER_1]'. The model can still help; the card number never left your boundary.
How OpenLabor uses it
OpenLabor runs configurable PII redaction on all model-bound traffic and stores redacted forms by default in audit trails.
What PII categories are usually redacted?
Names, emails, phones, SSNs, addresses, payment info, government IDs, health identifiers. Industries add their own categories (e.g., minor names in education).
Does redaction hurt model performance?
Usually not. Most tasks need the meaning, not the identity. Replace with consistent tokens and the model can still reason about 'PERSON_1' across a thread.
Is redaction enough for HIPAA?
It's necessary but not sufficient. HIPAA also requires BAAs with vendors, access controls, breach reporting, and more. Redaction is one layer.
Related: audit-trail, guardrails.
AI Labor Glossary