How can I use AI privately?
Handle privacy first, locally (on-device). This means redacting personal identifying information (PII) and other confidential data before entering it into an AI system wherever possible, and also ensuring metadata and other identifiers are removed.
By using CamoText to redact sensitive data before it enters the AI model along with other privacy tools like VPNs, you can limit the data that reaches the AI model and its website and server hosts.
This allows you to control privacy in a flexible manner and ingrain a habit of reviewing your materials for subjectively sensitive information, so you can use any AI service afterward with your own privacy controls.
What if I use "private" mode or "incognito" mode?
These modes generally refer to data history and storage on the user-side, not the AI host's servers (which still receive your full prompt, attachments, and metadata).
Most such services log your data for "safety" and "improved user experience" purposes. The level of privacy (by mode default or user-saved preferences) can change with a server-side update or company policy change, often without users' awareness. Finally, such companies can be compelled by legislation or judicial order to preserve data despite their policies.
What happens to the original file?
CamoText's anonymization process fully extracts the file's text (and wipes metadata), writing a new, clean output rather than selectively overwriting, covering, or affecting the input in any way.
CamoText is able to extract and reproduce formatting in Word, Markdown, and Excel file outputs, and outputs can be saved wherever the user desires. Original documents are unchanged.
What languages does CamoText support?
CamoText Pro contains a bundled model for recognition of English names and organizations.
CamoText Pro Español's interface is in Spanish and contains a bundled model for name and organization recognition trained on exclusively Spanish data.
CamoText International's interface and bundled models support English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian natively, with a button to switch between languages.
How does CamoText compare to other anonymization tools?
Once installed, CamoText does not require an internet connection, use cloud servers, or make any API calls. As a licensed desktop app, CamoText does not require a subscription nor any external dependencies.
Unlike other options from large vendors, all CamoText products' processing happens locally on your device using bundled local models and custom algorithms; rather than overlaying or altering your original file, CamoText writes a fresh output, ensuring metadata is wiped, no hidden data remains, and no accidental altering of the input file occurs.
Other offline options require technical sophistication, do not have the same breadth of data type recognition nor customizability, and do not have user-friendly interfaces.
With which data privacy regulations is CamoText compliant?
CamoText was built by a law firm and is designed for flexible use in compliance with regulations like GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and FISMA. By processing data entirely offline and encrypting sensitive information locally before it interacts with external systems like AI, it helps users meet stringent privacy requirements and can be used for different compliance levels.
The user retains control over the output, whether de-identified, pseudonymized, or fully anonymized-- including whether they decide to save anonymization key locally or let it be automatically deleted. User behavior and human-in-the-loop review, as well as proper legal counsel for your particular circumstances, determines the level of compliance.
How is human oversight contemplated?
CamoText's software is designed for a human-in-the-loop to use its powerful configuration options, inspect the output text for undetected items, false positives they desire to revert, or additional text they desire to obscure by simply highlighting the text and clicking "Anonymize Highlight".
Sensitivity and confidentiality can be subjective to the user, and even the best local models are far from perfect, so a human's review is always necessary. Our software is intended to be time-saving, easy-to-use privacy tooling for superpowered human productivity.
Does CamoText support automation and AI Agents?
CamoTextCLI is a powerful CLI version of CamoText, operating completely headless (no GUI), with user-configurable options, and is currently available for Windows and MacOS as part of Pro+ and International+. It's well-suited for integration into scripting automations and AI Agent workflows, though we still recommend a human-in-the-loop review. CLI documentation is available here.
What are CamoText's limitations?
CamoText is designed for text processing in the language(s) indicated for each product, and currently does not support images (including pdfs without detected text, as there is no bundled OCR). Supported filetypes are .txt, .md, .docx, .pdf, .xlsx, .csv, and .rtf; processing speed may vary by device hardware (RAM and CPU; no GPU needed), and accuracy may vary by filetype and formatting.
CamoText is designed to work on standard laptop hardware, and as such the model size limitations can result in false positives or missed terms. Sensitivity and confidentiality are often subjective, and even the cutting-edge recognizers are not perfect, so human review is always recommended. Please consult the applicable user guide for more information.