Anonymize a PDF: personal data found for you
Open your document: pdfanonym scans every page for emails, phone numbers, bank details, card numbers and names, and lets you redact them all at once. Nothing is uploaded.
- Files never leave your device
- Text is truly deleted, not hidden
- Free, no account, no watermark
Choose a PDF Processed on your computer. Nothing is uploaded.
How to anonymize a PDF
Open your PDF
Drop it on the page. The scan starts automatically, on your computer.
Review what was found
Personal data is grouped by type with examples. Untick what should stay, then click Mark selected. Add anything else by hand or with the search box.
Redact and download
Press Del or Apply: the text is deleted from the file. Hidden metadata is removed too.
What the scan detects
| Data | How it is checked |
|---|---|
| Email addresses | Standard address format |
| Phone numbers | International (+33, +49…) and national formats |
| IBANs | Official checksum (mod 97): invalid numbers are ignored |
| Bank card numbers | Luhn checksum; company numbers such as SIRET are excluded |
| French social security numbers | Control key verified |
| IP addresses | Valid ranges only |
| Names after a title | Mr, Mrs, Dr, Monsieur, Madame, Herr, Frau, Sr., Sra., Sig.… |
| Dates | Detected but left unticked, because documents are full of dates that are not personal |
Checksums matter: they keep false positives low, so you can trust the list instead of reviewing hundreds of random numbers.
What it cannot guess
A name written without a title ("Jean Dupont signed…") looks like any other words, so it is not detected automatically. Type it in the search box and press Mark all: every occurrence is caught, in capitals or not, with or without accents. Postal addresses and handwritten information are not detected either. Always read the document once before sharing it.
Why local anonymization matters
Sending a file full of personal data to an online service to remove that personal data is a contradiction: under the GDPR it means involving another processor. pdfanonym runs entirely in your browser, so the data never leaves your device.
Questions people ask
Is the detected data really removed?
Yes, once you apply the redaction. The characters are deleted from the file, not hidden under a box, and the document metadata (author, title…) is cleaned as well.
Does it work on scanned PDFs?
No: a scan contains images, not text, so there is nothing to analyse. Use Area mode to black out passages by hand.
Which languages and countries are covered?
Emails, international phone numbers, IBANs, cards and IP addresses work for any country. Titles are recognised in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Social security numbers are checked for the French format.
Can I keep some of the detected items?
Yes. Untick a category before marking, or remove single marks from the list on the right.
Other tools
Redact PDF
Black out names, numbers and sensitive passages. The text under the box is deleted.
Remove text
Erase words or paragraphs from a PDF and leave clean white space.
Remove metadata
See, edit or strip the author, software, dates, comments and attachments hidden in a PDF.
Flatten PDF
Turn form fields, comments and stamps into fixed content nobody can edit.
Compress PDF
Make a PDF smaller for email and uploads by shrinking oversized images.