Question 1

How does the Zero-Trust Agentic Guard work in practice when AI agents run shell commands or edit code?

Accepted Answer

PrivacyScrubber Agentic Guard acts as a local in-memory proxy between your workstation and autonomous AI coding agents (Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Code, Copilot). When an agent executes shell commands (guard_exec) or reads credentials (guard_read_file), output is intercepted in local RAM and secrets are replaced with anonymous tokens ([API_KEY_1], [EMAIL_1]). The remote LLM reasons exclusively over tokenized placeholders. When applying code changes (guard_apply_patch), tokens are reversed back to authentic local secrets in memory and written to disk with an automatic .bak backup. Zero secrets leave your device.

Question 2

Does PrivacyScrubber send my data to any server?

Accepted Answer

No. Every detection and sanitization operation runs locally inside your browser's RAM. Zero bytes of your text, documents, or session tokens leave your device. Verify this yourself: open DevTools → Network tab, test our DLP speed benchmark, or disconnect from the internet entirely — our air-gapped local processing keeps working offline.

Question 3

Does dropping or uploading a transcript or document into PrivacyScrubber transmit my file to a server?

Accepted Answer

No. When you drop or upload a document (.txt, .docx, .pdf, or client meeting transcript) into PrivacyScrubber, the file never travels across the internet. The entire webpage operates like a self-contained local application inside your browser: file parsing, text extraction, and PII redaction execute exclusively in your computer's local RAM. You can verify this complete data isolation by turning your computer's Wi-Fi completely off (Airplane Mode) before dropping your file — the tool continues to sanitize your documents with 100% functionality and zero network connectivity.

Question 4

Which AI platforms does the browser extension support?

Accepted Answer

The PrivacyScrubber Chrome extension injects real-time PII sanitization directly inside ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot (Bing Chat), Grok, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, and Zendesk. For coding agents and autonomous workflows, explore our AI Agents Protection guide, or use the web app at privacyscrubber.com to sanitize text before pasting it into any interface.

Question 5

What does the free version include?

Accepted Answer

The free Community Tier includes universal consumer PII masking (Names, Phones, Emails, National IDs, Credit Cards, IPs, URLs) with 15,000 characters per scrub, a 5,000-character free quota across all 30 specialized industry profiles, single-file upload (.txt, .docx), and PDF extraction up to 3 pages. It also includes free access to the Developer SDK (@privacyscrubber/sdk) and IDE MCP Server (@privacyscrubber/mcp-server) with built-in session quotas — zero credit card, zero passwords, and zero accounts required. For solo practitioners and developers, you can also claim a 1-Year PRO Reviewer Pass ($180 value) 100% free with an honest review on G2.

Question 6

Do I need to create an account or provide a password?

Accepted Answer

No. PrivacyScrubber is architected with Zero Accounts and Zero Passwords. We do not maintain a central user database or store login credentials. Upgrades (PRO, TEAMS, Developer SDK) are activated purely via an offline cryptographic license key entered into your browser or local SDK environment. Validation executes mathematically in volatile device RAM with zero phone-home user tracking.

Question 7

Can PrivacyScrubber sanitize W-2 forms, paystubs, and payroll documents?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Our specialized financial PII profile natively detects Employer Identification Numbers (EIN/FEIN), payroll-format names (LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME), corporate employer names with legal suffixes (Inc, LLC, Corp), and US street addresses. All wage amounts, tax withholdings, hourly rates, and financial figures are preserved untouched — essential for loan underwriting and HR payroll compliance.

Question 8

Can I get my original data back after the AI responds?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Paste the AI's response back into the tool and click Reveal. The 1-Click Reveal engine swaps every token ([NAME_1], [EMAIL_2], etc.) back to the original value using your volatile local session map — zero server round-trips, zero database storage.

Question 9

Does this help with HIPAA, GDPR, or SOC 2 compliance?

Accepted Answer

PrivacyScrubber is designed to support de-identification under HIPAA Safe Harbor (45 CFR §164.514) for 18 PHI identifiers, GDPR Article 25/32 data minimization, and SOC 2 Type II controls by stripping identifiers in browser RAM before prompt submission. Review our Top 20 Corporate PII Guide and CISO AI Security Blueprint for detailed governance controls.

Question 10

What is the CISO Procurement Memo and how do enterprise teams use it?

Accepted Answer

The CISO Procurement Memo is a standardized, copy-ready compliance document for enterprise IT, security architects, and procurement officers. It provides General Counsel, DPOs, and InfoSec committees with formal statutory evidence (GDPR Art. 4(8)/28, HIPAA 45 CFR § 164.502(e), CCPA § 1798.140) proving that because PrivacyScrubber runs 100% in local client RAM with 0 bytes transmitted to any server, third-party DPA/BAA contracts and lengthy vendor risk questionnaires (SIG/CAIQ) are legally non-applicable, enabling fast-track 0-day software approval.

Question 11

How does PrivacyScrubber prove zero network egress and lightweight memory usage?

Accepted Answer

Every software build undergoes an automated 13-suite security and performance QA pipeline in continuous integration (CI). Automated headless network sniffers verify that during PII sanitization, exactly 0 HTTP, WebSocket, or background telemetry packets leave the browser. In-memory heap profiling enforces an ultra-lightweight ceiling under 6MB RAM (5.68 MB JS Heap) and sub-75ms streaming DOM mutation scans across 5,000 live nodes, ensuring zero laptop heating and zero CPU throttle. Review the full audit in our Technical Security Specifications.

Question 12

What happens to the session map when I close the tab?

Accepted Answer

The session map exists exclusively in volatile browser RAM and is strictly isolated per tab. The moment you close the tab, reload the page, or navigate away, the entire mapping — including all original PII values and cryptographic keys — is permanently purged from memory. Read more in our Technical Security Architecture.

Question 13

What is the difference between AI Tokens mode and Blackout mode in PrivacyScrubber?

Accepted Answer

AI Tokens mode replaces sensitive entities with structured badges like [NAME_1] and [EMAIL_1], preserving contextual roles for LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude) and allowing 1-click restoration via Reveal Originals. Blackout mode applies permanent, solid black raster bars over sensitive pixel coordinates, physically destroying vector text layers for court filings, legal discovery, and FOIA releases with zero underlying text leakage.

Question 14

Why do standard PDF blackout tools leak data, and how does PrivacyScrubber prevent it?

Accepted Answer

Most conventional PDF editors and markup tools merely overlay black rectangles as a visual layer, leaving underlying OCR text, character coordinates, and metadata intact and extractable via Cmd+A copy or pdftotext. PrivacyScrubber executes true Secure Raster Flattening: pages are re-rendered in local RAM, PII coordinates are overwritten at the pixel level, and a fresh PDF is synthesized with zero underlying text layers, guaranteeing 100% leak-proof redactions.

Question 15

What file formats can I sanitize, and what do I get back?

Accepted Answer

Supported formats include .txt, .docx, .pdf (text-layer and scanned images via Tesseract OCR), .xlsx, and .csv. With Batch File Redaction and Excel Spreadsheet Scrub, you can download sanitized files with PII removed or export redacted PDFs with permanent raster flattening (zero underlying text layers).

Question 16

Why does the Chrome extension convert uploaded files (PDF/DOCX) into .txt, and how do file upload quotas work?

Accepted Answer

When users upload or drop documents (such as resumes or legal agreements) into ChatGPT or Claude, PrivacyScrubber intercepts the file in local browser RAM. Binary formats (.pdf, .docx) contain hidden metadata, revision histories, and XML streams that can expose personal identity even if visible text is edited. PrivacyScrubber extracts document text in memory, replaces sensitive PII with tokens, strips names from the filename, and injects a clean synthetic .txt file into the AI prompt window. This eliminates 100% of binary metadata leakage while preserving full LLM analytical utility. The Free tier includes a daily allowance of 3 document uploads per 24 hours (and up to 15,000 characters per scrub), while PRO and TEAMS provide unlimited document processing.

Question 17

How does TEAMS encrypted session handoff work?

Accepted Answer

PrivacyScrubber TEAMS uses Argon2id key derivation and XChaCha20-Poly1305 authenticated encryption (via libsodium WASM). Through encrypted team session handoff, colleague Alice sanitizes prompts and shares a cryptographic blueprint; colleague Bob reveals original values locally with zero server intermediary.

Question 18

How does Shadow DOM sandboxing protect against malicious scripts?

Accepted Answer

PrivacyScrubber wraps editor inputs and tokenized outputs inside closed Shadow DOM roots. This makes unredacted sensitive text completely inaccessible to DOM-scraping scripts, third-party analytics, or unauthorized browser extensions running on the host page. Learn more about our in-DOM prompt sandbox.

Question 19

Can I use PrivacyScrubber as an MCP server in Cursor, Windsurf, or Claude Desktop?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The official @privacyscrubber/mcp-server package runs as a local stdio-based Model Context Protocol server for Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Desktop, and VS Code. It intercepts codebase prompts, sanitizes database passwords and API tokens in RAM, and protects your software development workflows with zero external calls.

Question 20

Is there a developer SDK for integrating PII sanitization, and is it free to try?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The @privacyscrubber/sdk NPM package exposes the headless sanitization engine as a programmatic Node.js & ESM library. It is 100% free to test locally in under 30 seconds with a permanent free quota (15k characters General / 5k characters Specialized per session)—no credit card, no account sign-up, and zero expiring trials. Call scrubText() and unscrubText() directly in local dev environments, CI/CD gates, and RAG pipelines. Commercial licensing ($299/mo or $2,990/yr) is only required for unlimited production nodes and continuous high-throughput backend services.

Question 21

How do developers integrate @privacyscrubber/sdk out of the box, and what are the operational capabilities and state risks?

Accepted Answer

Developers integrate @privacyscrubber/sdk with zero dependencies using a 1-line wrapper like wrapOpenAI(new OpenAI()), or via standalone sanitize() and restore() in <1ms local RAM latency. It intercepts outbound prompts before network transmission, tokenizes PII and infrastructure secrets into semantic placeholders ([NAME_1], [AWS_KEY_1]), and rehydrates LLM responses locally—including streaming SSE tokens via sliding window reconstruction. Operation is completely plug-and-play with zero background servers or Python/spaCy daemons. The primary operational risk to manage is state custody in distributed microservices: tokenMap is volatile and RAM-only, requiring stateless microservices to preserve or pass the token map between pre-processing and post-processing nodes.

Question 22

Does changing the detection profile reset my session?

Accepted Answer

No. Switching between our 30 specialized industry detection profiles (e.g. from General to Legal & Contracts or Medical) preserves active tokens and session maps. Tokens remain restorable via Reveal until you click the Clear button explicitly.

Question 23

How does PrivacyScrubber prevent data residue in system RAM?

Accepted Answer

After processing documents (PDF, DOCX, XLSX), the engine immediately overwrites all temporary ArrayBuffers at the byte level with zeroes (Uint8Array.fill(0)) before releasing them to garbage collection. Pair this with our tamper-evident audit receipts for verifiable forensic compliance.

Question 24

Can enterprise or accounting teams pay via invoice or wire transfer?

Accepted Answer

Yes. For organizations requiring formal vendor onboarding, purchase orders (PO), or SWIFT/SEPA bank wire transfers, we provide custom invoicing with EU VAT reverse-charge support. Check our transparent pricing matrix or visit our Enterprise Solutions Hub.

Question 25

Does PrivacyScrubber load any third-party analytics or tracking scripts?

Accepted Answer

No. The platform loads zero analytics trackers, third-party cookies, or fingerprinting scripts. Maintaining strict Content Security Policies (CSP) ensures third-party endpoints cannot inspect memory or DOM states. Review our full commitments in our Zero-Server Privacy Policy.

Question 26

How are TEAMS admin roles managed without a backend?

Accepted Answer

There are no centralized accounts. Team administrators configure mandatory regex rules and compliance profiles locally in the Teams Deployment Hub, then generate a cryptographically signed Blueprint URL. When team members open this link, the configuration locks client-side without any backend database.

Question 27

What rights does a Team Administrator have compared to Managed Team Members in TEAMS?

Accepted Answer

The purchaser acts as the Team Administrator with exclusive authority to configure organization-wide custom Regex rules, corporate token taxonomy (e.g. [PATIENT_ID]), and default compliance profiles in the Teams Dashboard. When the Admin exports a cryptographically signed Blueprint with Lock Rules enabled, Managed Team Members receive a locked, read-only configuration across their Web App and Chrome Extension (badged as [ENTERPRISE]), preventing employees from altering or bypassing corporate DLP policies.

Question 28

What is the difference between Custom Regex Rules and Token Labels?

Accepted Answer

Our Custom Regex Rules Engine discovers proprietary data formats (custom ticket IDs, project codes like PROJ-1234, internal server URLs). Token Labels, in contrast, customize the replacement placeholder (e.g. renaming [NAME] to [PATIENT_ID]) to give LLMs optimal domain context without modifying regex patterns.

Question 29

How does PrivacyScrubber detect PII without AI hallucinations or latency?

Accepted Answer

PrivacyScrubber utilizes a high-performance deterministic pattern matching engine running natively in browser RAM (sub-2ms execution time). Unlike cloud LLM-based redaction which can hallucinate, omit tokens, or introduce network latency, our deterministic parser guarantees 100% reproducible tokenization across 18 core Safe Harbor/GDPR entity types (names, emails, phones, SSNs, credit cards, IBANs, medical MRNs, API tokens). PRO users can also inject custom regex rules or run local offline OCR for documents.

Question 30

How does license key custody, non-transferability, and emergency revocation work without user tracking?

Accepted Answer

Because PrivacyScrubber maintains a Zero-Trust Data Sanitization (ZTDS) architecture with zero server databases and zero phone-home user tracking, license custody is sovereign to the purchaser. All license tiers are strictly non-transferable. If a key is accidentally leaked or exposed, the billing owner can immediately request emergency revocation via support@privacyscrubber.com. We append the SHA-256 hash of the compromised key to our global Key Revocation List (KRL), instantly invalidating it across all client instances within 24 hours while reissuing a secure replacement.

Question 31

What are the exact operational boundaries between Personal PRO, Team Workspace, and Developer SDK licenses?

Accepted Answer

PRO ($15/mo or $110 Lifetime) is a single-user personal license valid on up to 3 personal devices (Web, Chrome, IDE MCP). TEAMS ($99/mo flat) is an organization-wide internal workspace covering unlimited internal staff with Master Key Isolation. The Developer SDK ($299/mo or $2,990/yr) covers headless execution across unlimited internal backend nodes, microservices, ETL pipelines, and internal RAG vector databases. Embedding into customer-facing commercial SaaS for third-party resale requires an OEM/Enterprise contract.

Question 32

Is the PrivacyScrubber MCP Server completely air-gapped, and is it free to use?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The @privacyscrubber/mcp-server package executes strictly in local machine memory over standard stdio JSON-RPC transport with zero outbound network requests, zero telemetry, and 100% volatile RAM mapping. It is 100% free to use with built-in session quota directly in Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Code, and VS Code without requiring a credit card or account registration. PRO and TEAMS tiers provide unlimited character volume and enterprise policy synchronization.

Question 33

How can solo coaches, therapists, and executive consultants sanitize client meeting transcripts (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet) without cloud exposure?

Accepted Answer

Solo practitioners handling confidential client sessions (ADHD coaching, therapy, executive consulting) can execute a 100% offline, zero-cloud workflow: First, transcribe your locally recorded Zoom or Teams meeting on your own device using an offline Speech-to-Text engine (such as MacWhisper or Whisper.cpp running natively on Apple Silicon / local GPU). Second, drop the resulting .txt or .docx transcript into PrivacyScrubber at privacyscrubber.com (even with your device Wi-Fi completely turned off). PrivacyScrubber strips client names, sensitive disclosures, neurodiversity/medical conditions, and identifying details into safe tokens ([NAME_1], [ORGANIZATION_1]) in volatile RAM. Third, submit the sanitized transcript to Claude or ChatGPT to extract themes, check coaching quality, or draft session summaries. Finally, click Reveal in PrivacyScrubber to rehydrate original client names locally. Zero client personal data ever touches third-party servers.

Question 34

How does PrivacyScrubber handle European names with initials and national identity numbers like Dutch BSN, German Steuer-ID, or French NIR?

Accepted Answer

PrivacyScrubber features dedicated pattern recognition engines for European business and civil nomenclature. Our punctuation-aware lookahead models accurately tokenize initial-prefixed names with noble particles (e.g., 'J. de Ruiter', 'K. van den Berg', 'M. de Jong') without prematurely splitting or dropping initials. For statutory identity tokens, PrivacyScrubber embeds native checksum and format validators in client-side RAM for European national IDs—including the Dutch 11-test checksum for BSN/SOFI numbers, 11-digit German Steuer-ID, 16-character Italian Codice Fiscale, Spanish DNI/NIE, French NIR/INSEE, and Dutch KvK commercial register numbers.

Question 35

How does PrivacyScrubber protect enterprise RAG vector databases and prevent GDPR Article 17 re-indexing costs?

Accepted Answer

Embedding raw personal data into vector databases (Pinecone, Qdrant, Weaviate, Milvus) creates permanent regulatory liability: fulfilling a single GDPR Article 17 'Right to Erasure' request requires locating all high-dimensional embeddings containing that person's data and recalculating vector indexes—costing upwards of $14,000 per deletion cycle. By embedding the headless @privacyscrubber/sdk into your ingestion pipeline, raw PII is swapped with deterministic cryptographic tokens in Node.js heap (<0.065ms) before vector embedding. When a deletion request arrives, organizations simply purge the local key mapping, achieving instantaneous O(1) mathematical erasure at $0 infrastructure cost.

Question 36

Why does PrivacyScrubber NOT require a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) or Business Associate Agreement (BAA)?

Accepted Answer

Under GDPR Article 4(8)/Article 28 and HIPAA 45 CFR § 164.502(e), Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) and Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) are legally required only when an external vendor processes or hosts protected data on remote infrastructure on your behalf. Because PrivacyScrubber executes 100% in local client-side RAM with zero server data transmissions, zero external telemetry, and zero subprocessors, PrivacyScrubber is legally classified as a software vendor rather than a data processor. Enterprise security and compliance committees can fast-track clearance in hours using our standardized CISO Procurement Memo.

Question 37

Why deterministic rules instead of cloud NER models like Microsoft Presidio or BERT?

Accepted Answer

Sending text to remote Named Entity Recognition (NER) models leaks raw data before masking can occur. ZTDS executes deterministic lookaround regular expressions and 30 specialized industry vocabularies 100% locally in device memory (<1ms latency), providing 100% reproducible compliance proofs without stochastic AI hallucinations or model drift.

Question 38

How is browser heap memory protected against local memory extraction, XSS, or process dumping?

Accepted Answer

PrivacyScrubber enforces strict Content Security Policy (script-src 'self') with zero external scripts or analytics trackers. Session maps exist strictly in volatile, tab-isolated RAM, are never written to disk, localStorage, or cookies, and are permanently wiped on tab close. Host RAM dumping requires prior OS root compromise, which affects all workstation secrets regardless of software.

Question 39

What happens if generative AI models alter, drop, or hallucinate synthetic tokens?

Accepted Answer

Our patented engine incorporates an algorithmic Tolerant Fuzzy Unscrubbing parser that resolves model case changes, whitespace shifts (such as [NAME 1]), and markdown formatting. If a model completely omits a token from its response, the local audit view immediately flags the missing identifier without corrupting surrounding text.

Question 40

How can an enterprise CISO or SOC audit compliance without central servers?

Accepted Answer

Zero server processing does not mean zero auditability. PrivacyScrubber generates cryptographically verifiable CISO Audit Receipts (SHA-256 integrity hash, triggered regulatory frameworks, timestamp, entity counts) directly on the client. Enterprise teams stream zero-PII telemetry locally to internal SIEM (Splunk, Datadog) via our Node.js SDK and MCP server.

Question 41

Why do organizations need ZTDS if they already have Azure OpenAI or ChatGPT Enterprise with a BAA?

Accepted Answer

Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) provide legal recourse after a breach, not physical prevention. They do not protect against cloud logging errors, insider snooping, model jailbreaks, or US CLOUD Act subpoenas. Data that never leaves the workstation in the first place cannot be breached, inspected, or subpoenaed.

Question 42

What if our organization handles rare, proprietary, or highly specialized PII formats?

Accepted Answer

Beyond 30 pre-configured industry profiles (HIPAA, GLBA, FINRA, FAR/DFARS, GDPR), PrivacyScrubber PRO and TEAMS allow security administrators to define custom client-side regular expressions or import MDM-locked company dictionaries that execute 100% locally in device memory with zero cloud egress.

Capabilities & Privacy	Free	PRO	TEAMS	ENTERPRISE
Core Protection Engine
PII Detection (Names, Emails, Phones, IDs)
Industry Detection Profiles (Medical, Legal, Finance, etc.)	5k Free Quota (All 30)	All 30 Profiles	All 30 Profiles	All 30 Profiles
Reveal Original Text (De-tokenization)
Custom Detection Rules		Unlimited		Unlimited (Hardcoded)
Real-Time Auto-Masking (Extension)
Document Processing
Text Paste & Single File (.txt, .docx, .csv)	Max 15k chars, 3 PDF pages	UNLIMITED	UNLIMITED	UNLIMITED
Batch Processing (Bulk Files & Directories)
Offline PDF & Image OCR Protection	3 OCR Scans
Native Exports (.docx, .csv, .pssession)
Zero-Trust Architecture
100% Client-Side (No Servers Involved)
Airplane Mode Verified Protection
Volatile RAM Session Mapping
IDE Security Audit & Action/Redact (MCP Server)		Basic
Team Collaboration & Fleet Governance
Zero-Server Data Handoff (Share Scrubbed Context)
Strict CISO Hard Lock (Non-Bypassable Protection)
Two-Tier Governance (Company Rules + [LOCAL] Codenames)
Instant Fleet Rollout (Encrypted Blueprints / MDM)
Enterprise & Licensing
On-Premise Source Code License
100% Air-Gapped Operation
Dedicated GRC Support
GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2 Compliance Ready
Pricing Model	Free Forever	$15/mo or $110 Lifetime	$99/mo Flat	Custom

Enterprise Privacy Features

In-Page PII Selection Popover

PII Scanner & Removal Tool

1-Click Data Recovery (Reveal)

Offline PDF & OCR Sanitization

Batch Protection

Excel Spreadsheet Scrub

Context-Aware Scrubbing

Real-Time Auto-Masking

Compliance Audit Receipts

Air-Gapped Operation

Custom Rules Engine

Secure Team Handoff

IDE Prompt Security (MCP)

Automated Directory Auditing

Universal Web Scrubbing

Browser AI Shield

Developer SDK (@privacyscrubber/sdk)

AI Summary / Key Takeaways

Detailed Capability Matrix

Ready to Sanitize Data with Zero Latency?

Redacted Document Inspection

Security & DPO Approval Memorandum

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