---
title: "PII redaction"
subtitle: "Mask personal data before it reaches a model provider, and hide it in logs and traces."
---

Respan detects personal information (PII), such as names, emails, and card numbers, and replaces each match with `[REDACTED]`. Turn it on for gateway requests, for logs and traces, or both.

## Turn on redaction

<Steps>
<Step title="Open PII redaction">

Go to **Settings** › **PII redaction**. Anyone in the project can see these settings, but only admins can change them. Changes save as you make them.

<img src={"/docs/images/pii-redaction/settings-light.png"} className="block dark:hidden" alt="Redaction settings with the Gateway and Telemetry toggles, Categories set to 16 categories selected, and Sensitivity set to Low" />
<img src={"/docs/images/pii-redaction/settings-dark.png"} className="hidden dark:block" alt="Redaction settings with the Gateway and Telemetry toggles, Categories set to 16 categories selected, and Sensitivity set to Low" />

</Step>
<Step title="Choose what to detect">

- **Categories:** Email, Phone, Name, Address, Organization, Demographic, Credential, Credit card, Bank account, IBAN, National ID, Social Security number, Passport, Driver's license, Username, Date of birth, and IP address. All but **Organization** are on by default, since company names cause false positives. Keep at least one selected.
- **Sensitivity:** from **Very low** to **Very high**. The default is **Low**. Higher settings catch more borderline text but also mask more ordinary words.

</Step>
<Step title="Check the result in Test">

Paste sample text into **Test input**. **Redacted preview** labels each match with its category and counts the matches. The test uses your saved categories and sensitivity and doesn't touch live traffic.

<img src={"/docs/images/pii-redaction/test-light.png"} className="block dark:hidden" alt="The Test panel with sample text in Test input and a Redacted preview that replaces the name, address, email, phone, date of birth, SSN, and IP address with labels. 7 entities detected" />
<img src={"/docs/images/pii-redaction/test-dark.png"} className="hidden dark:block" alt="The Test panel with sample text in Test input and a Redacted preview that replaces the name, address, email, phone, date of birth, SSN, and IP address with labels. 7 entities detected" />

</Step>
<Step title="Turn on Gateway, Telemetry, or both">

Switch on **Gateway**, **Telemetry**, or both. They work independently:

| Toggle | What it redacts | When |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Gateway** | Text in requests sent through the gateway: messages, system prompts, tool calls, and prompt variables. | Before the request reaches the provider. The request saved in Logs is redacted too. Model responses aren't. |
| **Telemetry** | Inputs, outputs, metadata, errors, and names on traces and on spans from your tracing SDK or integration. | When Respan shows logs and traces, in the platform and through the API. The stored data doesn't change. |

</Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
Gateway redaction changes what the model sees. If a reply depends on a masked value, such as an order number the user typed, the model can't use it. Test on real examples before you turn it on for production traffic.
</Warning>

## Good to know

- Detection is model-based and probabilistic, so no setting catches every case. Check your settings with **Test**, and don't treat redaction as a guarantee.
- If the detector is unavailable, redaction fails closed. With **Gateway** on, requests return a `503` error instead of sending unredacted text. With **Telemetry** on, logs and traces return a `503` error until the detector recovers.
- The settings apply to all traffic in the project.