LocalRedact vs PII Tools

LocalRedact is a free, open-source PDF redaction tool that follows plain-English instructions using deterministic rules. It removes text beneath redacted areas and blanks image pixels where those areas overlap. Detection can target personal, financial, government, health, and credential data, as well as quoted values and selected page or layout instructions. Processing happens locally: the project says it uses no LLM, cloud API, telemetry, or model download, and reads text and coordinates with PyMuPDF. By default, it removes common PDF extras such as metadata, embedded files, JavaScript, links, and saved form state. After saving, it reopens the document and checks whether detected values remain extractable. Interfaces include a Python API, two command-line tools, and an optional HTTP service. Scanned PDFs can use locally installed Tesseract; image-only pages fail closed without OCR by default. The package requires Python 3.10 or later and is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The project calls the software alpha and warns that detection is best effort, not a compliance certification. It recommends visually reviewing high-stakes output.

PII Tools locates and helps remediate personally identifiable information, payment-card data and health information across digital assets. It scans more than 400 file formats in local or cloud storage, covering structured and unstructured data. Analytics and reporting support review, while users can redact or erase information individually or in batches. Person Cards aggregate detected records associated with people across files, email and databases, with spreadsheet export. Document redaction supports in-place changes and pseudonymization for PDFs, Excel files and images, and a REST API can automate workflows. Named connectors include Microsoft 365 Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Salesforce, Google Drive, Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL and MySQL/MariaDB. It can run on a customer server, keeping sensitive data within the network according to the maker. Deployment uses Docker-capable machines or virtual machines. A seven-day hosted trial is available by contacting PII Tools.