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When personal information protection runs on an answer, a row under it reads N details kept on this Mac · Review (this PC on Windows). Click it to see the list, on your computer.

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Before you start

  • You are using Elephas AI or your own API key. Local AI answers have no row, because nothing is sent.
  • Protect personal information when using cloud AI is on in Settings › AI. See Personal information protection.

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Steps

1

Ask a question

Ask a question in a chat as usual. When the answer is ready, look at the row of actions under it.
2

Find the row under the answer

Under the answer you see a row such as 3 details kept on this Mac · Review. On Windows it says this PC.
The row under an answer reading 12 details kept on this Mac, with a Review link
3

Open the list

Click Review. The Hidden from the cloud AI dialog opens with a count line, for example 3 details · kept on this Mac. Each hidden detail is listed with the stand-in label the AI saw, for example “Person 1”. Hover over a detail to see “Sent to the cloud AI as” followed by its stand-in.Use the filters All, People, Contact, Places and Dates, plus Numbers when there are any, to narrow the list.
The Hidden from the cloud AI dialog showing 12 details kept on this Mac, with the All, People, Contact, Places, Dates and Numbers filters. Names are labelled Person 1, Person 2 and Org 1, and an email address and phone number are labelled Email 1 and Phone 1
4

Close the dialog

Click Close.
The steps are the same on Mac and Windows.

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How it works

Elephas replaced these details with stand-ins before anything was sent to the cloud AI, and put the real words back in the answer on your computer. What the count means. It is the number of different details, not the number of replacements. If a name appears ten times across several requests, it counts once. What the list covers. Everything hidden while Elephas produced that answer: your question, the chat history that was sent, and every passage the AI was given, including passages the final answer did not use. So it is not “the personal details in this answer”. It is what was kept out of the requests. “Nothing needed hiding”. Elephas checked your question and its sources before sending and found nothing that needed hiding. This is different from no row at all, which means hiding did not run. Some values are masked in the dialog. Card, bank and ID numbers show only their last four digits, for example •••• 1234. Passwords are fully masked. Everything else is shown as it appears in your files, because you are looking at your own documents on your own computer.
The Numbers filter in the Hidden from the cloud AI dialog, showing a tax ID masked to its last four characters and labelled Tax ID 1
It may include things that are not personal. The detector sometimes hides words that turn out not to be personal information. They are listed because they were hidden. When there is no row:

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The list is kept in memory only

The row appears only for answers given in the current session.
  • The list is never saved to the database. Reopening an old chat, or restarting Elephas, shows no row on earlier answers.
  • It is never synced. Your chat syncs with Personal Sync, but the list is not part of it, so the same answer on another computer shows no row.
  • It is never written to the log. The log records only how many details were hidden.
This is deliberate. Keeping a second copy of exactly the words the feature protects would create a new place for them to leak.

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Troubleshooting

Check which AI answers in Settings › AI. Local AI answers have no row. Then check that Protect personal information when using cloud AI is on in Settings › AI. Answers from an earlier session, or from before you switched workspace, also show no row.
Detection hides many common personal details, but not all of them. To make sure a specific name or term is always hidden, add it to the Brain’s Protected Names. For the most sensitive material, use Local AI, which sends nothing.
The detector is cautious and sometimes hides words that are not personal. The real words are put back in the answer on your computer, so the answer still reads normally.

Personal information protection

What data is sent to AI

Protected Names

Run Local AI