PII Redaction

The PII Redaction model lets you minimize sensitive information about individuals by automatically identifying and removing it from your transcript.

Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is any information that can be used to identify a person, such as a name, email address, or phone number.

When you enable the PII Redaction model, your transcript will look like this:

• With hash substitution: Hi, my name is ####!
• With entity_name substitution: Hi, my name is [PERSON_NAME]!

You can also Create redacted audio files to replace sensitive information with a beeping sound.

Supported languages

PII Redaction is available in multiple languages. See Supported languages.

Redacted properties

PII only redacts words in the text property. Properties from other features may still include PII, such as entities from Entity Detection or summary from Summarization.

Quickstart

Enable PII Redaction by setting redact_pii to true in the transcription config.

Use redact_pii_policies to specify the information you want to redact. For the full list of policies, see PII policies.

Python

import assemblyai as aai

aai.settings.api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY"

# audio_file = "./local_file.mp3"
audio_file = "https://assembly.ai/wildfires.mp3"

config = aai.TranscriptionConfig().set_redact_pii(
    policies=[
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.person_name,
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.organization,
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.occupation,
    ],
    substitution=aai.PIISubstitutionPolicy.hash,
)

transcript = aai.Transcriber().transcribe(audio_file, config)

print(transcript.text)

Example output

Smoke from hundreds of wildfires in Canada is triggering air quality alerts
throughout the US. Skylines from Maine to Maryland to Minnesota are gray and
smoggy. And in some places, the air quality warnings include the warning to stay
inside. We wanted to better understand what's happening here and why, so we
called ##### #######, an ######### ######### in the ########## ## #############
###### ### ########### at ##### ####### ##########. Good morning, #########.
Good morning. So what is it about the conditions right now that have caused this
round of wildfires to affect so many people so far away? Well, there's a couple
of things. The season has been pretty dry already, and then the fact that we're
getting hit in the US. Is because there's a couple of weather systems that ...

Create redacted audio files

In addition to redacting sensitive information from the transcription text, you can also generate a version of the original audio file with the PII “beeped” out.

To create a redacted version of the audio file, use the set_redact_pii() method on the TranscriptionConfig with redact_audio to True.

Use get_redacted_audio_url() on the transcript to get the URL to the redacted audio file.

Python

config = aai.TranscriptionConfig().set_redact_pii(
    policies=[
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.person_name,
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.organization,
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.occupation,
    ],
    redact_audio=True,
)

transcript = aai.Transcriber().transcribe(audio_url, config)

print(transcript.get_redacted_audio_url())

Supported languages

You can only create redacted audio files for transcriptions in English and Spanish.

Maximum audio file size

You can only create redacted versions of audio files if the original file is smaller than 1 GB.

Example output

https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/api.assembly.ai.usw2/redacted-audio/ac06721c-d1ea-41a7-95f7-a9463421e6b1.mp3?AWSAccessKeyId=...

API reference

Request

curl https://api.assemblyai.com/v2/transcript \
--header "Authorization: YOUR_API_KEY" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data '{
  "audio_url": "YOUR_AUDIO_URL",
  "redact_pii": true,
  "redact_pii_policies": ["us_social_security_number", "credit_card_number"],
  "redact_pii_sub": "hash",
  "redact_pii_audio": true,
  "redact_pii_audio_quality": "mp3"
}'

Key	Type	Description
redact_pii	boolean	Enable PII Redaction.
redact_pii_policies	array	PII policies for what information to redact.
redact_pii_sub	string	Method used to substitute PII in the transcript. Can be entity_name or hash.
redact_pii_audio	boolean	Create a redacted version of the audio file.
redact_pii_audio_quality	string	Quality of the redacted PII audio file. Can be mp3 or wav.

Response

{
  "text": "Smoke from hundreds of wildfires in Canada is triggering air qua ..."
}

Key	Type	Description
text	string	Transcript with redacted PII.

The response also includes the request parameters used to generate the transcript.

PII policies

Policy name	Description	Example
account_number	Customer account or membership identification number	Policy No. 10042992; Member ID: HZ-5235-001
banking_information	Banking information, including account and routing numbers
blood_type	Blood type	O-, AB positive
credit_card_cvv	Credit card verification code	CVV: 080
credit_card_expiration	Expiration date of a credit card
credit_card_number	Credit card number
date	Specific calendar date	December 18
date_of_birth	Date of birth	Date of Birth: March 7,1961
drivers_license	Driver’s license number.	DL# 356933-540
drug	Medications, vitamins, or supplements	Advil, Acetaminophen, Panadol
email_address	Email address	[e-mail]
event	Name of an event or holiday	Olympics, Yom Kippur
gender_sexuality	Terms indicating gender identity or sexual orientation, including slang terms	female; bisexual; trans
healthcare_number	Healthcare numbers and health plan beneficiary numbers	Policy No.: 5584-486-674-YM
injury	Bodily injury	I broke my arm, I have a sprained wrist
ip_address	Internet IP address, including IPv4 and IPv6 formats	192.168.0.1
language	Name of a natural language	Spanish, French
location	Any Location reference including mailing address, postal code, city, state, province, country, or coordinates.	Lake Victoria, 145 Windsor St., 90210
medical_condition	Name of a medical condition, disease, syndrome, deficit, or disorder	chronic fatigue syndrome, arrhythmia, depression
medical_process	Medical process, including treatments, procedures, and tests	heart surgery, CT scan
money_amount	Name and/or amount of currency	15 pesos, $94.50
nationality	Terms indicating nationality, ethnicity, or race	American, Asian, Caucasian
number_sequence	Numerical PII (including alphanumeric strings) that doesn’t fall under other categories
occupation	Job title or profession	professor, actors, engineer, CPA
organization	Name of an organization	CNN, McDonalds, University of Alaska, Northwest General Hospital
passport_number	Passport numbers, issued by any country	PA4568332; NU3C6L86S12
password	Account passwords, PINs, access keys, or verification answers	27%alfalfa, temp1234, My mother’s maiden name is Smith
person_age	Number associated with an age	27, 75
person_name	Name of a person	Bob, Doug Jones, Dr. Kay Martinez, MD
phone_number	Telephone or fax number
political_affiliation	Terms referring to a political party, movement, or ideology	Republican, Liberal
religion	Terms indicating religious affiliation	Hindu, Catholic
url	Internet addresses	https://www.assemblyai.com/
us_social_security_number	Social Security Number or equivalent
username	Usernames, login names, or handles	@AssemblyAI
vehicle_id	Vehicle identification numbers (VINs), vehicle serial numbers, and license plate numbers	5FNRL38918B111818; BIF7547

Troubleshooting

Why is the PII not redacted in my transcription?

Make sure that at least one PII policy has been specified in your request, using the redact_pii_policies parameter. If you’re still experiencing issues, please reach out to our support team for assistance.

Why is my webhook not being sent?

There could be several reasons why your webhook isn’t being sent, such as a misconfigured URL, an unreachable endpoint, or an issue with the authentication headers. Double-check your request and ensure that the webhook_url parameter is included with a valid URL that can be reached by AssemblyAI’s API. If you’re using custom authentication headers, ensure that the webhook_auth_header_name and webhook_auth_header_value parameters are included and are correct. If you’re still having issues, please contact our support team for assistance.

Why does my redacted audio file sound worse than the original?

By default, the API returns redacted audio files in MP3 format, a lossy format. Lossy formats remove audio information to reduce file size, which may cause a reduction in quality. The difference may be particularly noticeable if the submitted audio is in a lossless file format. To retain as much quality as possible, you can instead return your redacted audio files in a lossless format, by setting redact_pii_audio_quality to wav.