Anonymize Documents for AI Analysis

How to Use CamoText: Tips and Best Practices

June 8, 2026

CamoText is designed for private-by-design anonymization of documents, especially in preparation for AI analysis, with fully offline operation on any computer. Powerful user settings and intuitive human review features are designed to address the inherent imprecision and subjectivity of privacy and confidentiality.

How It Works

Text is extracted from loaded files, processed locally using bundled local models and custom algorithms, and written anew as output text; original input files are not disturbed.

Simply copying the output text and pasting it into an AI interface or attaching .md or .txt files is often the preferred workflow for anonymized document analysis or other external AI uses. Plaintext is faster and cheaper for AI to process, avoiding the need to parse and interpret heavy file types. However, formatting preservation is a feature in user settings for Word documents, Markdown, and Excel files.

User settings may be saved, auto-loaded, and adjusted or combined with other settings files.

Unless keys or output files are saved locally, all session data is wiped from memory upon closing the app.

If keys are saved locally, they can be used to reinsert terms and de-anonymize output text later.

File Types and Workflows

  • Single-document. Anonymize a draft, have AI analyze either copied output text (lightest and simplest) or saved output files, then either (1) adjust your authoritative draft separately, ensuring you control any changes, or (2) paste LLM output into the Reinsert Terms window with the Key still active, and reinsert originals.
  • Batch processing. Batch-anonymize a set of supported file types, review and adjust all at once in the app before saving or copying. Save the outputs as the same file types as the inputs, or use the concatenated text output for AI analysis. Great for multi-document matters or projects sharing common settings and information.
  • Reduce to lighter file types. When working with PDFs that contain scanned text (the file must have detectable text; scanned images are not supported, as local OCR models remain impractical for offline use on standard laptops) or media-heavy Word documents, it's often better to use the anonymized text output by copying and pasting into your LLM rather than saving as the same file type: lighter and cheaper for your AI usage limits. Still, saved output files have links, media, and other metadata natively wiped by default, even when formatting preservation is enabled, to avoid other common avenues of data exposure.
  • Media files. Audio and video files are data-rich and extremely heavy for AI to process, and are best transcribed for privacy and efficiency. If starting from audio, try CamoVoice for offline transcription. If starting from video (for example, a meeting or deposition recording), extract the audio offline with CamoConvert and transcribe with CamoVoice. See the CamoSuite overview for full offline workflow solutions.
  • Agentic AI tools. When using agentic software like Claude Cowork or Codex, create a fresh desktop folder with anonymized copies of documents to constrain agent access for security and efficiency. This also preserves the authoritative version of your draft(s) separately and maintains user control over edits and changes. If you want to use AI output directly, apply CamoText's in-app Reinsert Terms or De-Anonymize feature and save separately.

User Settings

Use the Priorities feature in user settings to ensure text is anonymized verbatim, case-insensitive with custom-labeled placeholders (like CLIENT or COUNTERPARTY) so AI has even more context. You may note this in your prompt or skill files.

Example Prompt or Skill inclusion Certain terms may be anonymized and replaced with placeholders: any "CLIENT" or "CLIENTAFFILIATE" tag corresponds to our client, whose interests you should prioritize. If the client/customer/party of interest is unclear, ask before proceeding.
  • Randomize Tags. Enable this option if you want to prevent the same placeholder hash from being identifiable across sessions for maximum privacy (for example, "CamoText" may be ORGANIZATION_d5fa98a5 in one run, then ORGANIZATION_4aef9e6d in another). You will need to save each key locally if you want to de-anonymize several runs simultaneously later.
  • Formatting preservation. Limited to .docx, .xlsx, .md, and .rtf, as these filetypes natively encode formatting information. If this setting is enabled for Word documents, you may indicate whether tracked changes should be accepted or rejected during text processing.
  • Auto-load settings. Automatically load settings upon opening the app that always apply or are set globally by your firm or company. You can combine settings files together or customize them for a given session. Save and Close applies only to the current session; Save Settings to File saves to disk.

Review Findings and Output

  • Review by Category to review and revert auto-detected findings by data type or revert an entire category at once; uncheck anything that should remain before clicking Revert.
  • Open in New Window to review output: change font size, search for specific terms. The Anonymize Highlight button works in the main or separate window, and changes are automatically reflected when the New Window is closed.
Human in the loop: No automated detection is perfect, and confidentiality is subjective. Always review output before it's used externally.

International

CamoText International doesn't merely translate: each supported language has its own dedicated models, recognizers, and interface for truly native support.

Switch languages with a button. User settings are fully portable across languages.

See our guide on multilingual anonymization and transcription for details and more options.

CLI

CamoText's CLI mode (invoked with camo) is bundled in Pro+ and International+.

User settings are fully portable for CLI mode. CLI mode has additional config options, but settings generated by the app are compatible.

CLI mode is scriptable, so you (or your agent) can automate creation of priority terms and tags, settings, and multi-step flows: folder watchers, batch anonymize to a new folder, rename files, log actions, delete keys after de-anonymization, and more. Combine with other CamoSuite software's CLI support for multi-step automated file preparation, such as audio extraction from video, transcription, and anonymization.

For a deeper dive, see the CLI documentation.

Remember, context-based recognizers are imperfect and confidentiality can be subjective, so full automation is not recommended: keep a human in the loop.

Summary

In practice, most users enjoy the straightforward workflow of anonymizing a document or folder of documents according to their settings, quickly reverting false positives that could affect interpretation, reviewing the output in a separate window to easily highlight and anonymize any missed terms or deemed-confidential passages with a click, then pasting the metadata-free output text into their AI interface for analysis.

The authoritative version of the document remains separate and under the user's control, for any changes or additions they'd like to make from AI's suggestions. The human in the loop remains responsible for ensuring proper anonymization pre-AI use, as well as verifying and adjusting AI outputs before inclusion in anything that leaves their device.