How AusRedact works
Upload a document, see what we found, review every page, then download a copy with the details burnt out for good. One document or a batch, from your browser. Processing happens on our servers in Australia.
Step by step
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Upload your documents
Choose one document or up to 20 at once: PDF, Word (.docx), JPG or PNG, each up to 300 pages or 40 MB. It goes straight to our servers in Australia, where it is scanned for malware first. You do not need an account.
- Scans and phone photos work. We read the text on them before we look for anything.
- A password-protected PDF is turned away with a clear message. Remove the password and upload it again.
- A Word document is converted to PDF in Australia first. The layout can differ slightly from Word, so check every page.
- Several documents chosen together become one order. Each one still gets its own preview, review and download.
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See a free preview
We check the first 10 pages for Australian identifiers and tell you what we found, such as "4 tax file numbers, 2 account numbers, 1 Medicare number". You see the price for the whole document before you pay anything.
- The preview uses the pattern check only. The AI check runs after you pay.
- If you stop here, you pay nothing and the file is deleted within 24 hours.
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Pay
Pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through Stripe, or use pages from a pack. You get a tax invoice by email.
- Before you pay, you can switch the AI check off for this document.
- An order is paid in one go, and you get one tax invoice for it. The minimum charge is for the whole order, not each document. If a card order is under 10 pages, the unused pages go to your page balance.
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We check every page
Patterns look for the identifiers on every page. Then the AI check looks for names, addresses, signatures and faces on a copy of each page with the identifiers our pattern check found already masked.
- If the AI check is off, skipped or fails, the review screen says so plainly, so you know to look for those details yourself.
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Review every page
Every finding is shown on the page, in yellow. Turn each one on or off, or draw your own box anywhere.
- Type a name or a reference into "Redact every occurrence of" to box each place we find it.
- Use "Black out by type" to switch a whole category on or off, like every ABN.
- Once you have looked at every page, tick "I have reviewed every page". Download stays locked until you do.
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Download
Each page is rebuilt as an image with your boxes burnt in, then checked before you can download it. Your browser names the file from its own copy.
- Press Delete now when you are done. Otherwise your document and everything made from it is deleted within 24 hours of upload.
- For an order, Download all saves every finished copy in one ZIP file, built in your browser. Delete all now removes the whole order.
What it looks for
Two checks, each doing what it is best at. Patterns look for numbers with a known shape. The AI check looks for the things patterns cannot, and only ever sees pages with the identifiers our pattern check found already masked.
Australian identifiers, by pattern
- Tax file numbers
- Check digit tested. A number beside the words "tax file number" is flagged even when a scan smudged a digit.
- Medicare card numbers
- Check digit tested, with the same fallback for smudged scans.
- ABNs and ACNs
- Check digits tested. Switch the type off in one click if business numbers should stay.
- BSBs and bank account numbers
- Found by the words beside them, such as "BSB" or "account number".
- Credit and debit card numbers
- Check digit tested, so most other long numbers are left alone.
- Driver licence numbers
- Found by the words beside them, such as "licence no.", because each state uses its own format.
- Passport numbers
- Including the two machine-readable lines at the foot of a passport photo page.
- Centrelink, DVA and healthcare identifiers
- Customer reference numbers, DVA file numbers and individual healthcare identifiers.
- Super member and policy numbers
- Found by the words beside them.
- Unique student identifiers
- The USI on training and study records, check digit tested.
- Dates of birth, emails and phone numbers
- Dates of birth by the words beside them. Emails and phone numbers by their shape.
People, by the AI check
- Names
- People's names, wherever they appear on the page.
- Home and postal addresses
- Street, suburb, state and postcode.
- Signatures
- Handwritten and drawn signatures.
- Faces on photo ID
- The photo on a licence, passport or ID card.
The AI check runs on Amazon Bedrock in Sydney and Melbourne. It keeps nothing and trains on nothing. Switch it off for any document before you pay.
Your own words
A client's name, a matter number, a street. Type it once and each place we find it is boxed for you to check.
Burnt in, then checked
A black box drawn on top of text does not remove it. AusRedact rebuilds every page as an image with your boxes burnt in, so the PDF you download has no text layer, no hidden layers and no metadata.
Before you can download it, we check that:
- the page count and page shapes match your original
- every box you approved is at least 99% black, on the right page
- the file has no text, fonts, annotations or metadata
If any check fails, the file is not released and its pages go back to your page balance. If every document in a card payment fails, we refund the whole payment automatically.
Copy and paste gives you 123 456 782
Copy and paste gives you nothing. There is no text left to copy.
What it does not do
Better to know now than after you upload.
- Old Word .doc files and HEIC photos
- Save them as .docx, PDF or JPG first.
- A redacted Word file
- Word documents come back as a redacted PDF. A Word file cannot carry the guarantee that nothing hidden survives.
- Word files with macros, outside links or embedded objects
- They are turned away to keep conversion safe. Save the document as a PDF and upload that.
- Password-protected PDFs
- Remove the password before you upload.
- More than 20 documents in one order
- Start a second order for the rest. An order also stops at 1,000 pages or 400 MB in total.
- Searchable text in the redacted file
- The output is images only, on purpose. Nothing can hide in a text layer that is not there.
See what is in your document before you pay
Upload a PDF, Word document, JPG or PNG. We check the first 10 pages for Australian identifiers free and show you the price. No account needed.