Security and privacy
Where your document goes, what we keep and for how long, and every service that handles your data.
The full detail is in our Privacy policy.
The short version
- Your documents are processed and stored in Australia, on Microsoft Azure in New South Wales.
- The AI check runs on Amazon Bedrock in Sydney and Melbourne, on pages with the identifiers our pattern check found already masked. You can switch it off.
- Your document, and everything made from it, is deleted within 24 hours of upload, or as soon as you press Delete now.
- Stripe handles payments and may process your payment details outside Australia. It never sees your document.
Where your document goes
Nine steps, from upload to deletion. Every step in the outlined lane runs on our servers in Australia. The rest happen on your own screen.
-
You upload
From your browser, straight to app.ausredact.com.au. This website never handles the file.
Where: Your browser
-
Malware scan
Microsoft Defender checks the file before anything else happens.
Where: Azure, Australia East
-
We read each page
From the PDF text, or with text recognition for scans and photos.
Where: Azure, Australia East
-
Identifiers flagged and masked
Patterns look for TFNs, Medicare numbers and more, then mask what they find on a copy of each page.
Where: Azure, Australia East
-
AI check
Looks for names, addresses, signatures and faces on the masked copy only. You can switch it off.
Where: AWS Bedrock, Sydney and Melbourne
-
You review every page
Turn findings on or off, add your own boxes, and confirm you have checked every page.
Where: Your browser
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Burn and verify
Each page is rebuilt as an image with the boxes burnt in, then checked before release.
Where: Azure, Australia East
-
You download
Your browser names the file. We never store the file name.
Where: Your browser
-
Document deleted
Your document and everything made from it, within 24 hours of upload or as soon as you press Delete now.
Where: Azure, Australia East
What we keep, and for how long
A check runs every 5 minutes to delete documents and short-lived records past their time, and alerts us if it falls behind.
Deleted files are not kept as backups or old versions. Our file storage has those features switched off for documents.
Our database is backed up in Australia for 7 days, so a deleted record, such as a box position or a payment record, can stay in a backup for up to 7 days. Backups never hold your documents or their text.
- Your original file
- Deleted within 24 hours of upload, or when you press Delete now.
- The redacted file
- Deleted with the original.
- The text we read from your pages
- Kept in our Australian file storage while you work, then deleted with the original. It is never written to our database.
- What we found
- Stored only as box positions and a label such as "TFN", never the text itself. Deleted with the job.
- Your file name
- Never stored. Your browser names the download from its own copy.
- Your job cookie
- Expires 24 hours after your last upload. It links your browser to your job and holds nothing else.
- Your sign-in cookie
- Expires after 30 days. It keeps you signed in and holds nothing else.
- Payment records
- Your email address, the amount, the pages, the date, Stripe's payment reference, the terms version accepted at payment and when the payer's email address was confirmed, kept for 7 years because tax and company law require it.
- Account details, if you sign in
- Your email address, page balance, a record of pages added and used (dates and page counts only), the version of the terms you accepted, and when you last signed in, kept for 12 months after your last sign-in or until your last pack pages expire, whichever is later.
- Upload and sign-in limits
- A one-way code made from your internet address, or from your email address when you ask for a sign-in link, deleted within 3 hours. We never store the address itself.
- System logs
- Codes, counts and times only, never your internet address, email address or anything from your documents. Kept for 30 days.
- Emails you send to support
- Kept for up to 2 years after the conversation ends.
How we check the burn worked
AusRedact does not draw boxes over your text. It rebuilds each page as an image with the boxes burnt in, so the PDF you download has no text to copy and nothing hidden underneath.
After every redaction, before you can download, 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 layer, 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. The same pixel check runs on the masked copy before the AI check sees it, so the AI never sees an identifier we have already found.
Who handles your data
These are the services that process data for AusRedact. Only the first two ever handle a document.
| Service | What it does for us | Where | Sees documents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Azure | Runs the AusRedact app, stores your files while you work, converts Word documents to PDF, reads the text on scanned pages and scans uploads for malware. | Australia East (New South Wales) | Yes |
| Amazon Web Services (Bedrock) | Runs the AI check for names, addresses, signatures and faces. It sees page images with the identifiers our pattern check found already masked, keeps nothing and trains on nothing. | Sydney and Melbourne | Yes |
| Stripe | Takes card, Apple Pay and Google Pay payments. It sees your email address, the amount and a payment reference, never your document or its name. | May be outside Australia, including the United States | No |
| Azure Communication Services | Sends sign-in links, links to reopen a job, "your file is ready" emails, tax invoices and refund notices. Never document content or file names. | Australia | No |
| Zoho Mail | Hosts our support mailbox, so it holds what you email us. Never email us a document. | Australian data centre | No |
The AI service keeps nothing and trains on nothing. We have switched off its request logging, and our access to it is locked to the Sydney and Melbourne regions. This website, ausredact.com.au, is served by Cloudflare on its global network. It is separate from the app and never receives a document.
What we never do
- Sell your documents or your details, or share them beyond the services listed on this page, except as our Privacy policy explains, such as where the law requires it or someone is at serious risk of harm.
- Use your documents to train AI. Neither do the services we use.
- Let staff browse your files. There is no staff tool for viewing documents, and our admin access needs multi-factor sign-in.
- Keep your documents longer than 24 hours.
- Ask you to email us a document.
Your part
Check every page before you download. Software can miss things. That is why AusRedact asks you to confirm you have reviewed every page, and keeps the download locked until you do.
Never email us a document, even for support. Describe the problem and we will help from there.
Found a security problem?
Email support@ausredact.com.au with "Security" in the subject. Tell us what you found and how to see it. Please do not include anyone's personal information.
This website
ausredact.com.au runs no analytics, no advertising trackers and no third-party scripts, and sets no cookies of its own. Your light or dark theme choice is saved in your browser and is not sent to us. The app at app.ausredact.com.au uses cookies only to link your job to your browser and to keep you signed in. None is used for tracking.
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.