Redactic replaces candidates' names, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, dates of birth and ID numbers with placeholders, in a single CV or in a ZIP of up to 200 applications, and the same candidate keeps the same placeholder in every file. Recruiters judge experience and skills, and when the shortlist is ready the name map puts the real names back. Detection and masking run in Europe, and documents are never stored.
CVs and cover letters, application forms, candidate lists exported from your applicant tracking system, interview notes, references and internal investigation reports, in PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx) or CSV, as scans or photos, or in a ZIP.
Permanently black out data directly on the document. Ideal for securely sharing files with third parties.
Replace sensitive data with placeholders before using AI. Restore the original values in the final output.
Below is the top of a fictitious CV, redacted with Organizations switched off so that employers and schools stay readable. Redactic masks the details that point to the candidate, and the roles, years of experience and skills stay as they are.
| Field in the document | Type of data | How Redactic handles it |
|---|---|---|
| Giulia Ferri | Person name | Recognised; with the name list or a name column, certain in every form |
| Via Carlo Farini 14, 20159 Milano | Home address | Recognised as a location |
| giulia.ferri@email.it | Email address | Recognised |
| +39 347 118 2290 | Phone number | Recognised |
| 14/03/1991 | Date of birth | Recognised next to its label |
| Italian | Nationality | Masked with one click, or added to your list |
| linkedin.com/in/giuliaferri | Profile link | Masked with one click, or added to your list |
| Photo | Photo of the candidate | Replaced by a black box when you tick Black out all images (PDF and Word); without the option the photo stays, and the text inside images of PDFs, Word files, scans and photos is read with OCR and masked |
| Milano, Bergamo | Places of past jobs | Recognised as locations |
| Pellegrini Logistica S.p.A., Studio Conti & Associati, Politecnico di Milano | Employers and school | Kept with Organizations switched off; the city of the school is masked with the locations |
| Roles, years, skills, languages | Experience | Kept |
| Column header | Type Redactic proposes | Your choice |
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Person | Mask the whole column |
| Mask the whole column | ||
| Phone | Phone | Mask the whole column |
| City | Location | Mask the whole column |
| Date of birth | Dates of birth | Mask the whole column |
| Nationality | Redact all | Redact all |
| Gender | Redact all | Redact all |
| Position applied for | None proposed (Auto) | Keep |
| Years of experience | None proposed (Auto) | Keep |
| Skills | None proposed (Auto) | Keep |
Fictitious data. Experience, skills and the structure of the list stay as they are, so the panel can compare candidates before it knows who they are.
With Firm, everyone in HR writes to the Secure Chatbot with the real names of candidates and colleagues, asks for interview questions, a comparison with the job profile or a reply to an applicant, and Redactic masks the personal data in every message before the model receives it. The answer comes back masked and each person's browser puts the real values back in. If masking is not available, the message is not sent.
The chat keeps no conversation on our servers, masking runs in Europe on infrastructure Redactic controls, and the people who manage your workspace decide who uses the chat and how much AI each person can use. Document redaction for up to 50 users is part of the same plan.
Running a large HR department or an agency with many recruiters? Enterprise adds unlimited users, volumes and AI quotas tailored to each team, a DPA built around your policies, and dedicated, single-tenant, private-cloud or on-premise deployment.
Working on your own? With Solo you have the same protection in the document chat: the file reaches the AI already masked, and the names you type in your questions are masked before they are sent.
Add a CV in PDF or Word (.docx), a scan or a photo, or paste the text, or upload a ZIP with up to 200 applications, and the same candidate gets the same placeholder in every file. A candidate list in Excel (.xlsx) or CSV is redacted column by column, and Redactic proposes a type for each column whose header it recognises. Choose the countries of the documents, up to four, so that Redactic reads the phone and ID formats of your candidates.
Switch Organizations off to keep employers and schools readable, mask whole columns of names and contact details, and select any word in the text to mask it as well, such as a nationality or a profile link. In PDFs, Word files, scans and photos, Redactic reads the text inside images with OCR and masks only the matching words, and the rest of the image stays. Tick Black out all images to turn every image in a PDF or Word CV, such as the photo or a signature, into a black box. Open Review and edit to check every item on the page; on a scanned PDF you can draw a box over the photo there. A gendered title, a pronoun or the year of a degree can point to the candidate too, so read the first page once before you share it.
Download the redacted files, one by one or as a ZIP, and copy the name map: when you are ready to invite, Restore values puts the real names back into the shortlist. Or open the document chat and ask your questions with the names as they appear in the file: Redactic masks them before sending, and the answer comes back with the real names on your device.
In the Secure Chatbot and in the document chat, Redactic masks the personal data it detects before the model receives the text, and the answer is restored in your browser. If masking is not available, nothing is sent.
A ZIP of up to 200 CVs, cover letters, notes and candidate lists is redacted file by file, and each candidate keeps the same placeholder across every document, so a cover letter still matches its CV after redaction.
The name map stays in your browser and you keep a copy with the selection file. When the panel has chosen, Restore values puts the real names back into the shortlist text, or into a PDF that still carries the placeholders.
In an Excel or CSV export from your applicant tracking system, Redactic proposes a type for each column whose header it recognises, and every cell of the columns you mask is covered while experience, skills and scores stay readable.
Scanned or photographed CVs are read with OCR, and the redacted file leaves without the author, company, comments and tracked changes of a Word file or the properties of a PDF.
Detection and redaction run in Europe on infrastructure Redactic controls, without third-party AI reading the unredacted text. Your files are not saved, and the data processing agreement under GDPR art. 28 is signed when you subscribe.
These are the rules your work answers to. Next to each one is what Redactic actually does, so you can judge for yourself how it fits your practice.
The European data protection authorities wrote that an employer may collect and process data on job applicants only to the extent that the data are necessary and relevant to the job applied for, and that data collected during recruitment should generally be deleted once it is clear that no offer will be made or accepted. An anonymised CV keeps what the panel needs to judge the job, and Redactic stores no documents, so your applicant files follow the retention period you set.
Your firm decides why and how candidate documents are processed; Redactic acts as your processor under a data processing agreement signed when you subscribe.
Article 32 names pseudonymisation among the measures for the security of processing. Redactic pseudonymises personal data before any AI step, runs detection in Europe and keeps neither your files nor your conversations.
Only the data a purpose needs should be processed. A panel that shortlists on experience and skills needs those, and the anonymised CV keeps them while names, contact details and dates of birth give way to placeholders; the AI receives the masked text.
Annex III lists as high-risk the AI systems intended to be used for the recruitment or selection of natural persons, in particular to place targeted job advertisements, to analyse and filter job applications and to evaluate candidates, and since the amendment by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 the obligations for these systems apply from 2 December 2027. Article 4, as amended, asks providers and deployers of AI systems to take measures to support the AI literacy of their staff. Redactic masks and restores data and does not screen or rank candidates; with the Secure Chatbot, HR decides who on the team uses AI and how much, and the model receives placeholders for the personal data Redactic detects.
Redactic describes what its tools do; the assessment of your own processing remains yours, with the support of the DPA and the Trust & Security page. Security
Blind recruitment has been tested by public bodies in several European countries, and each programme chose which details of the CV to hide. The table lists, for five countries, the official source, what the programme hid from the people who chose whom to interview, and what the evaluation measured, with a link to each text. The results differ from one setting to the next, so each row reports them as its source states them.
Checked against the sources on 9 November 2026.
| Country | Source | What the programme hid | What the evaluation found |
|---|---|---|---|
| United KingdomYour country | Prime Minister's Office and Cabinet Office, press release of 26 October 2015 GOV.UK, 26.10.2015 | Name: the Civil Service committed to name-blind recruitment for all roles below Senior Civil Service level | The release announces the commitment; it cites no evaluation |
| Finland | City of Helsinki pilot; Kanninen, Kiviholma and Virkola, "Anatomy of an anonymous hiring pilot", Labore Working Paper 338, September 2023; City of Helsinki news, 12 September 2023 Labore Working Paper 338hel.fi, 12.9.2023 | Name, address, age, language skills and educational institution, until interview invitations were sent; the length of previous work experience was shown, without the exact dates | Pilot from February to December 2020 on 13 job titles. For applicants with a foreign-sounding name, the probability of an interview rose by 5 percentage points, against a gap of 4 per cent and 8 per cent between foreign-sounding and Finnish-sounding names; the effect on hiring was similar or somewhat larger, with no effect on job duration or wages. The city reports no change in the gender of the people hired, and that the pilot was small |
| France | Labour Code, art. L1221-7, as amended by Law no. 2015-994 of 17 August 2015, art. 48; final evaluation report of the Pôle emploi experiment, Behaghel, Crépon and Le Barbanchon, March 2011; same authors, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 7(3), 2015 Code du travail, L1221-7Conseil d'État, 2015Rapport 2011AEJ: Applied Economics, 2015 | The identity block of the CV: surname, first name, address and date of birth. Since 2015 the Labour Code says that the information a candidate gives in writing may be examined under conditions that preserve anonymity, which makes the anonymous CV optional for employers | Experiment from November 2009 to November 2010 in eight départements, with about 1,000 establishments. With a male recruiter, women's chance of an interview went from 1 in 27 with named CVs to 1 in 6 with anonymous ones, and men's from 1 in 5 to 1 in 13. For candidates with an immigrant background or living in a priority urban area, the gap widened: 1 in 10 against 1 in 8 for the others with named CVs, 1 in 22 against 1 in 6 with anonymous CVs. The authors explain this by the self-selection of firms into the programme and by anonymisation preventing the attenuation of negative signals |
| Germany | Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes), pilot project "Anonymisierte Bewerbungsverfahren", final report, IZA Research Report no. 44, April 2012 IZA Research Report 44ADS, Abschlussbericht | Name, gender, nationality and place of birth, disability, date of birth or age, marital status, photo. For the time after the pilot the report recommends at least leaving out photo, name, address, date of birth, place of birth, nationality and marital status from the first page | Eight organisations for twelve months each, from November 2010: 8,550 applications read anonymised, 1,293 people invited to a test or an interview, 246 offers. Within the anonymised procedures, women and people with a migration background had the same chance of an invitation as the other groups. The authors state that the results are not representative, because most participants already had diversity measures in place |
| Sweden | Åslund and Nordström Skans, "Do anonymous job application procedures level the playing field?", IFAU Working Paper 2007:31; Industrial and Labor Relations Review 65(1), 2012 IFAU Working Paper 2007:31ILR Review, 2012 | The study describes the procedure as hiding, for example, the applicant's name, gender and country of origin in the first stages | Two districts of the City of Gothenburg used the procedure in 2004 to 2006; the study follows 3,529 applicants to 109 positions, with a third district for comparison. Women and applicants of non-Western origin were more likely to reach an interview; women were also more likely to receive an offer, and no such effect was found for immigrants |
Each programme hid the details on the first page of the application and left qualifications and experience readable. Redactic masks names, addresses, contact details and dates of birth in your CVs before anyone reads them, and lets you mask any other word the programme you follow asks to hide.
Upload the CV to Redactic, or a ZIP with all the applications of a selection, and Redactic replaces the name, address, email, phone number, date of birth and ID numbers with placeholders. Switch Organizations off if the panel should read employers and schools, select any other word you want hidden, such as a nationality or a profile link, and tick Black out all images to replace the photo of a PDF or Word CV with a black box. Download the anonymised files and keep the name map for the candidates you invite.
Look for one that anonymises a whole folder of applications in one step, pseudonymises the data before any AI model receives it, runs detection in Europe, keeps no files or conversations and signs a data processing agreement under GDPR art. 28. Redactic does each of these, and with Firm the whole HR team has a secure chat with an AI quota for each person.
The question to settle is what the model receives. With Redactic the CV is masked before any AI step, so the model works on placeholders and the real names and contact details return only in your browser. HR keeps one tool for the whole team, with access and AI quotas decided by whoever manages it.
Yes, when you tick Black out all images: every image in a PDF or Word CV, such as the photo or a signature, becomes a black box in the file you download. Without the option, Redactic reads the text inside the images of PDFs, Word files, scans and photos with OCR and masks only the matching words, such as a name in a scanned header, and the rest of the image stays. A scanned PDF is a picture from the first page to the last, so the option leaves it to the text redaction, and you can draw a box over the photo in Review and edit.
Yes. In the masking mode Redactic gives you a name map that stays in your browser; copy it and keep it with the selection file. When the panel has chosen, Restore values puts the real names back into the shortlist, or into a PDF that still carries the placeholders.
Yes. Upload a ZIP with up to 200 CVs, cover letters and notes in PDF, Word, Excel or text formats, and you get back a ZIP of the redacted files under their own names, with the same placeholder for the same candidate in every file. A candidate list in Excel or CSV is redacted column by column.
In France it is optional. Since Law no. 2015-994 of 17 August 2015, article L1221-7 of the Labour Code says that the information a candidate gives in writing may be examined under conditions that preserve anonymity, and the Conseil d'État noted in 2015 that the anonymous CV is now optional. In Germany, Finland and Sweden the anonymous application has been used in public pilots, listed with their sources in the table above. Redactic produces the anonymised files and leaves the choice of what stays readable to you. Reference table
Redactic masks the name and the date of birth, which carry both, and in a candidate list it proposes to redact the whole column under a nationality or gender header. Gender and age can also show in a pronoun, a gendered job title, a courtesy title or the year of a degree, and the Helsinki pilot, for example, showed the length of past jobs without their exact dates. Select those words in the text or add them to your list, and Redactic masks every occurrence.
Not on Redactic's servers. The Secure Chatbot keeps no conversation history, the conversation lives in your browser, and the map of placeholders is not retained between messages. The AI provider of the workflow you use receives only the masked text, under the terms set out in the DPA.
Detection and redaction run in Europe on infrastructure Redactic controls, without third-party AI reading the unredacted text, and your files are not saved. Your firm is the controller for its documents, and Redactic is the processor under GDPR art. 28, with a DPA signed when you subscribe. Data Processing Agreement Security
Detection and masking in Europe, no files or conversations stored, and a DPA signed when you subscribe.
For HR departments and agencies with many users, Enterprise adds unlimited users and dedicated, single-tenant, private-cloud or on-premise deployment.