Elephas

Sensitive Data Protection

Learn how Elephas redacts emails, phone numbers, and other personal information from your queries before they reach any AI provider.

Smart Redaction (new in 11.7)

Starting in version 11.7, Elephas includes Smart Redaction, a new feature that automatically anonymizes personal information before it reaches any cloud AI provider. Smart Redaction runs entirely on-device, so the original PII never leaves your Mac.

  • Protects personal information (PII) from cloud AI exposure
  • Runs on-device, no external service involved in detection
  • Improves privacy without changing how you use Elephas

What gets redacted

Smart Redaction scans outgoing queries for patterns that match common personal information:

  • Email addresses
  • Phone numbers
  • Names (detected via common patterns)
  • Street addresses
  • Social security numbers and similar identifiers
  • Credit card numbers

Detected items are replaced with placeholder tokens (e.g., [EMAIL], [PHONE]) before the query reaches the AI provider. The AI sees only the redacted version.

How to enable Smart Redaction

  1. Update Elephas to version 11.7 or later
  2. Open Elephas Settings
  3. Go to the Privacy tab
  4. Toggle Smart Redaction on

How it fits with the rest of Elephas privacy

Smart Redaction is the latest layer in the Elephas privacy model. Combined with 100% local indexing (introduced in 11.6) and Offline AI mode, it gives you a full privacy spectrum:

  • 100% Local Indexing: Your documents are indexed entirely on your Mac. No cloud involved during indexing.
  • Smart Redaction: When you do use cloud AI for chat, personal information is anonymized on-device before sending.
  • Offline AI: For maximum privacy, run the entire AI conversation locally with no network requests at all.

Important notes

  • Smart Redaction uses on-device pattern matching. It catches the most common PII patterns but is not a guarantee that every personally identifying detail will be detected.
  • Redaction applies only to cloud AI queries. If you use Offline AI mode, your data never leaves your Mac, so redaction is not needed.
  • Redaction does not modify your original documents. Only the text sent to the AI provider is affected.

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