Skip to main content
Sven Brencher
Community Expert
Sven BrencherCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 30, 2026
Answered

detect and redact sensitive information based on local ai

  • August 30, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 55 views

I need to remove a lot of sensitive informations before I can hand off a pdf to an AI tool or agent. Things like names, emails, adress or contact informations, prices, dates, urls, health data and so on. I would love to have a local AI-tool in Acrobat Desktop/Mobile to investigate one or more PDF files, telling me what kind of sensitive information was found and then giving me options to redact these data. Basically like the remove tool in Photoshop which shows  different categories of things it detected in an image and then I can select what I want to keep or remove. 
Of course it must be a local tool on my computer/device because I don’t want any online service to see the sensitive information, before I submit the document.  

Correct answer BaniVerma

Hi @Sven Brencher,


Thanks for sharing this detailed feature request and use case.

I understand what you're looking for: a way for Acrobat to analyze one or more PDFs locally on the device, identify and categorize potentially sensitive information, and then let you review and choose what to redact before the document is shared with an online AI service.


Acrobat Pro currently provides Search and Redact, which lets you search for a single word or phrase, multiple words or phrases, or supported patterns and then review the results before marking them for redaction.

You can find more information here: https://adobe.ly/3SBKG10


Acrobat Pro also provides Sanitize document for finding and removing hidden information that may be present in a PDF, such as metadata, comments, hidden layers, attachments, and other non-visible content.

More details are available here: https://adobe.ly/4ddUBRh


These capabilities are different from the workflow you're asking for, specifically, automatic AI-based identification and categorization of sensitive information, with the analysis performed locally on the device.

I would encourage you to share this idea on the Acrobat UserVoice forum: https://adobe.ly/3T3YEZC


Please search UserVoice first to see if a similar request has already been submitted. If you find one, you can cast your vote and leave a comment with your use case. If you don't find a matching request, please submit a new feature request with the details you've shared here. This will also allow other users interested in the same workflow to vote for the idea.


Thanks again for taking the time to share the detailed use case and for highlighting the importance of keeping sensitive information local during this workflow.


Regards,
^BS

3 replies

BaniVerma
Community Manager
BaniVermaCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
Community Manager
August 31, 2026

Hi @Sven Brencher,


Thanks for sharing this detailed feature request and use case.

I understand what you're looking for: a way for Acrobat to analyze one or more PDFs locally on the device, identify and categorize potentially sensitive information, and then let you review and choose what to redact before the document is shared with an online AI service.


Acrobat Pro currently provides Search and Redact, which lets you search for a single word or phrase, multiple words or phrases, or supported patterns and then review the results before marking them for redaction.

You can find more information here: https://adobe.ly/3SBKG10


Acrobat Pro also provides Sanitize document for finding and removing hidden information that may be present in a PDF, such as metadata, comments, hidden layers, attachments, and other non-visible content.

More details are available here: https://adobe.ly/4ddUBRh


These capabilities are different from the workflow you're asking for, specifically, automatic AI-based identification and categorization of sensitive information, with the analysis performed locally on the device.

I would encourage you to share this idea on the Acrobat UserVoice forum: https://adobe.ly/3T3YEZC


Please search UserVoice first to see if a similar request has already been submitted. If you find one, you can cast your vote and leave a comment with your use case. If you don't find a matching request, please submit a new feature request with the details you've shared here. This will also allow other users interested in the same workflow to vote for the idea.


Thanks again for taking the time to share the detailed use case and for highlighting the importance of keeping sensitive information local during this workflow.


Regards,
^BS

Sven Brencher
Community Expert
Sven BrencherCommunity ExpertAuthor
Community Expert
August 31, 2026

Hy ​@BaniVerma 
thanks for your quick reply. I already use Search and Redact for this workflow quite a lot. But still a lot of work, especially when it comes to detecting names. So I was hoping that some kind of AI could do this much quicker. 
I filed a feature request here: https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/51655183-detect-and-redact-sensitive-information-based-on-l and would love to get some votes on this 😊

    BaniVerma
    Community Manager
    BaniVermaCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    August 31, 2026

    Thanks for the additional context, ​@Sven Brencher. I understand how manually identifying items such as names can make the current Search and Redact workflow time-consuming, especially when working with multiple documents.

     

    Thank you for taking the time to submit the feature request on UserVoice and for sharing the link here.

     

    For anyone following this thread who would find this capability useful, please feel free to review the request and add your vote and comments directly on UserVoice:

    https://adobe.ly/4x0j5EL

     

    Thanks again for sharing the use case and feedback with us. 😊

     

    Regards,
    ^BS

      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
      Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices