Philterd

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Tell us about your stack and the privacy problems you're trying to solve. We typically respond within one business day.

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Please do not enter PII or PHI in this form. If you need to share an example, use a sanitized one.

Windows desktop redaction

Philter Desktop

Redact PII from documents on your own Windows computer. Philter Desktop opens PDF, Word, Excel, text, and email files — and reads scanned PDFs with on-device OCR — finds sensitive information with AI that runs entirely on your computer, and writes a redacted copy for you to review. Nothing is uploaded, and no service has to be running.

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Redacts
  • PDF
  • DOCX
  • XLSX
  • CSV
  • TXT
  • RTF
  • EML
  • MSG
Download → Documentation → GitHub →

Every document is redacted on your computer, and nowhere else.

Philter Desktop opens, analyzes, and redacts each file locally on your own Windows computer. There is no cloud service, no server, and no network call at any step. Your documents, both the originals and the redacted copies, never leave the device, and it runs with no internet connection at all. We cannot see your files, because they are never sent anywhere.

  • 100% on-device: detection and redaction run on your computer
  • No uploads, no cloud, no servers, no network calls
  • Works fully offline, with no internet connection
  • Your documents never leave your computer

See what gets redacted

The same document before and after Philter Desktop: sensitive details are detected and blacked out, while the rest of the document stays intact.

Original Original law firm letter showing a client's name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, phone, email, and account numbers in plain text
Redacted The same letter after redaction, with the client's name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, phone, email, and account numbers blacked out

Illustrative example using synthetic data, not real personal information. Detection is configurable and probabilistic; review redacted output against your own documents.

See Philter Desktop in action

Philter Desktop main window showing a queue of documents with each file's redaction status, policy, and context
The main window: drag in documents and Philter Desktop redacts them in the background, with a queue that shows each file's status.
Redact Documents dialog for choosing files, a policy, and a context
Add your files, choose a policy and a context, and start redacting.
Policy Editor showing configurable detectors organized into tabs
Configurable redaction policies: choose exactly which kinds of information to redact, and how.
New Policy Wizard asking what kind of documents you are redacting
A guided wizard builds a sensible policy for common document types in a few clicks.

Who Philter Desktop is for

Philter Desktop brings the Philterd redaction toolkit to a single Windows computer, for small law firms, solo practitioners, and business users who need to redact sensitive documents without sending them to a cloud service.

Small law firms and solo practitioners

Redact court filings, discovery, and client documents on your own machine, with no IT department required.

Small practices handling sensitive records

Clinics, accountants, and advisors who need to scrub PII and PHI from documents without sending them to a cloud service.

Anyone who cannot stand up a server

When Philter (the self-hosted API) and Phileas (the embeddable library) are more than you need, Philter Desktop is the install-and-run option for a single Windows computer.

What Philter Desktop does

A native, open-source Windows app

Install and run it like any Windows program — no server, command line, or cloud account. It is open source under the Apache license, so your IT team can audit exactly what it does and confirm your documents stay local.

Every format — even scanned PDFs

Redacts PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx) and CSV, plain text (.txt), rich text (.rtf), and email (.eml and .msg). Image-only scanned PDFs are read with on-device OCR, so text baked into a scan can be redacted too.

Context-aware, configurable detection

A bundled on-device AI model finds person names in context, while configurable detectors look for Social Security and account numbers, emails, phone numbers, dates, and your own custom terms. Start from a ready-made policy or tailor your own.

Review and verify before you share

Preview exactly what will be redacted and adjust it before saving. Philter Desktop can re-scan the finished file to help catch anything missed, and produce a report or a JSON explanation of every change for your records.

Removes hidden data, not just text

Strips Office metadata, comments, tracked changes, and hidden text, and removes identifying email headers such as the originating IP address and mail client — the hidden data ordinary redaction leaves behind.

Automate it across folders

Point Philter Desktop at a folder and new files are redacted automatically, with it running quietly in the system tray. A command line and a Windows Explorer right-click action handle batch and one-off jobs.

Pricing

$100 USD per user / year. Commercial use. Free for personal and evaluation use.

  • The official signed Windows installer
  • Commercial use of the official build under the Philterd Commercial License Agreement, with the open source Philterd PII model bundled and ready to run
  • Configurable redaction policies and ready-made starting points
  • Direct support from the team that builds the toolkit

Philter Desktop is open source under the Apache 2.0 license. Anyone can build it from source and run it for free, including for commercial use. The fee is not for the right to use the software; it pays for the official signed installer and direct support.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get Philter Desktop?
Download Philter Desktop from our GitHub releases page. Personal and evaluation use is free; commercial use is $100 USD per user per year.
What do I get, and what happens after I purchase?
Nothing about the software changes for paying customers. You run the same official signed build as everyone else; there is no separate paid download, and there are no license keys or activation to enter. Your purchase entitles you to commercial use and to direct support from the team that builds it. Keep your receipt as proof of entitlement when you contact support. See our Refund and Cancellation Policy for refunds and cancellations.
Do my documents leave my computer?
No. Detection and redaction run entirely on your Windows computer, with no outbound network calls. It works with no internet connection. This is the point of a desktop tool for privileged and regulated documents.
Can you see my documents?
No, never, because your documents never leave your computer. Philter Desktop does all detection and redaction locally, so we have no way to see what you open or redact.
Is it open source?
The application and the bundled PII model are open source under the Apache license, like the rest of the Philterd toolkit, so you can audit exactly what they do and build and run them yourself for free. The $100 USD per user per year covers commercial use of the official signed build and support, governed by the Philterd Commercial License Agreement. Personal and evaluation use of the official build is free.
What file types does it redact?
PDF, Microsoft Word documents (.docx), plain text (.txt), rich text (.rtf), spreadsheets (.csv and .xlsx), and email files (.eml and .msg). Scanned, image-only PDFs are read with on-device OCR so they can be redacted too.
Can it redact scanned PDFs?
When a PDF page is a scan with no real text, Philter Desktop reads it with on-device OCR (optical character recognition) and redacts the personal information it finds. The OCR runs entirely on your computer, so scanned documents stay offline like everything else. OCR is best-effort and can miss low-quality scans or handwriting, so a quick review is always worthwhile.
Can I control what gets redacted?
Philter Desktop uses the same configurable policy engine as Philter, so you decide which entity types to redact and how, and you can add your own terms and rules.
Does it remove hidden data and metadata?
Beyond the visible text, Philter Desktop can strip Word and Excel document metadata (author, company, and so on), comments, tracked changes, and hidden text, and it removes identifying technical headers from email such as the originating IP address and mail client. These are common places sensitive information hides after an ordinary redaction.
How do I know the redaction worked?
Three ways. You can preview and adjust exactly what will be redacted before saving; Philter Desktop can automatically re-scan the finished file for anything still detectable; and you can produce a redaction report or a side-by-side before-and-after comparison. Redacted files are also named with a "_redacted-draft" suffix as a built-in reminder to review before sharing, because no automated tool is perfect.
Is the redaction permanent?
Redaction always writes a new copy and never changes your original. For PDFs the page is flattened to an image, so there is no live text or hidden object left under the redaction boxes to recover; for the other formats the underlying content is replaced, not merely covered.
Can I automate redaction?
Set up watched folders and any file dropped in is redacted automatically, with Philter Desktop running quietly in the system tray. There is also a command line for scripted or batch redaction, and a Windows Explorer right-click action for one-off files.
Is my data stored securely on my computer?
Philter Desktop keeps its local data, such as your redaction history, encrypted at rest, protected by your Windows account by default, with the option to require a passphrase to open it.
What are the system requirements?
Windows 10 version 2004 (build 19041) or later, or Windows 11, 64-bit. On-device OCR of scanned PDFs uses the built-in Windows OCR component.

Need offline redaction for your firm?

Whether you want to download Philter Desktop and get started or scope a larger offline redaction deployment, you can work directly with the team that builds the toolkit. Contact us about what you are redacting and we will help.