Diligence report redaction is the removal of personal data from an adviser's findings. A report prepared for legal advice can attract the legal professional privilege exemption in DPA 2018 Sch. 2, and sending it to a cloud service is itself a disclosure. anonym.plus finds and swaps the PII on your own machine, so the analysis stays useful and the privilege position stays intact.
When this applies
Advisers write up risks, contracts, and people across the target. The write-up names staff and counterparties who never dealt with you directly. Art. 14(5)(b) may excuse telling each of them, but sharing fewer identities is the safer route. You want findings, not identities, in the bidder's hands.
How anonym.plus handles it
- Load one report or a whole folder into anonym.plus on your device.
- The tool scans names, emails, IDs, and dates in the prose.
- Risk findings and deal context stay; only PII gets flagged.
- Confirm each flag, then redact or swap it.
- Save the clean file with no network call.
What you need to provide
- The report as DOCX, PDF, or pasted text.
- An operator: Redact for slim copies, Replace for readable ones.
- Optional allow-list to keep your own deal terms.
PII entity types detected
| Category | anonym.plus entity type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Names | PERSON | Harriet Lowe → [PERSON] |
| Contact | EMAIL_ADDRESS | h.lowe@target.co.uk → [EMAIL] |
| Dates | DATE_TIME | signed 14 Mar → [DATE] |
| Finance | IBAN_CODE | account no. → [ACCOUNT] |
| Identifiers | NATIONAL_ID | VAT ref → [ID] |
| Location | LOCATION | registered office → [ADDRESS] |
Compliance achieved
- Offline work avoids a disclosure that could test the DPA 2018 Sch. 2 privilege exemption.
- Trims third-party identities in line with UK GDPR Art. 5(1)(c).
- Cuts the people you would otherwise notify under UK GDPR Art. 14.
- On-device AES-256-GCM guards the working files.
Anonymise due diligence reports offline — see plans & start free →
Limitations & cautions
The privilege exemption in DPA 2018 Sch. 2 turns on why the report was made, not on how it is redacted, and passing it to a bidder can waive privilege whatever you mask. Free prose also varies: short forms and odd spellings can slip past, above all on scanned pages that OCR turned into text.
Frequently asked questions
Will redaction hurt the findings?
No. The IDs go, but the risks, deal context, and conclusions stay. The write-up is still useful for review.
Does redacting protect privilege?
Not by itself. Privilege depends on the purpose of the advice, and handing the report to a bidder can waive it. Working offline avoids one extra disclosure — to a cloud processor — which is the part you control.
Is the source ever uploaded?
No. Work is fully offline. The report stays on your machine the whole time.