PII and PCI Redaction

Redaction allows you to identify and mask sensitive information from transcriptions to protect privacy and comply with data protection regulations. The Pulse STT API supports two types of redaction: PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and PCI (Payment Card Information).

Enabling Redaction

Add redact_pii and/or redact_pci parameters to your WebSocket connection query parameters. Both parameters default to false. Options: true, false.

Real-Time WebSocket API

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const url = new URL("wss://waves-api.smallest.ai/api/v1/pulse/get_text");
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url.searchParams.append("language", "en");
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url.searchParams.append("encoding", "linear16");
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url.searchParams.append("sample_rate", "16000");
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url.searchParams.append("redact_pii", "true");
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url.searchParams.append("redact_pci", "true");
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const ws = new WebSocket(url.toString(), {
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  headers: {
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    Authorization: `Bearer ${API_KEY}`,
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  },
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});

Redaction Types

PII Redaction (redact_pii)

When redact_pii=true is enabled, the following types of personally identifiable information are automatically identified and redacted:

• Names: First names and surnames
• Addresses: Street addresses and locations
• Phone numbers: Various phone number formats

Redacted PII items are replaced with placeholder tokens like [FIRSTNAME_1], [FIRSTNAME_2], [PHONENUMBER_1], etc.

PCI Redaction (redact_pci)

When redact_pci=true is enabled, the following types of payment card information are automatically identified and redacted:

• Credit card numbers: 16-digit credit/debit card numbers
• CVV codes: Card verification values
• ZIP codes: Postal/ZIP codes
• Account numbers: Bank account numbers

Redacted PCI items are replaced with placeholder tokens like [CREDITCARDCVV_1], [ZIPCODE_1], [ACCOUNTNUMBER_1], etc.

Output Format

When redaction is enabled, the transcription text contains placeholder tokens instead of the original sensitive information. The response also includes a redacted_entities array listing all the redacted entity placeholders.

Sample Response with Redaction

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{
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  "session_id": "sess_12345abcde",
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  "transcript": "[CREDITCARDCVV_1] and expiry [TIME_2] slash 34.",
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  "is_final": true,
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  "is_last": true,
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  "full_transcript": "Hi, my name is [FIRSTNAME_1] [FIRSTNAME_2] You can reach me at [PHONENUMBER_1] and I paid using my Visa card [ZIPCODE_1] [ACCOUNTNUMBER_1] with [CREDITCARDCVV_1] and expiry [TIME_1].",
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  "language": "en",
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  "languages": ["en"],
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  "redacted_entities": [
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    "[CREDITCARDCVV_1]",
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    "[TIME_2]"
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  ]
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}

Response Fields

Redaction Placeholder Format

Redacted entities are replaced with placeholder tokens following the pattern:

• [ENTITYTYPE_N] where ENTITYTYPE indicates the type of information (e.g., FIRSTNAME, PHONENUMBER, CREDITCARDCVV, ZIPCODE, ACCOUNTNUMBER)
• N is a sequential number starting from 1 to uniquely identify each instance

Examples:

• [FIRSTNAME_1], [FIRSTNAME_2] - First names
• [PHONENUMBER_1] - Phone numbers
• [CREDITCARDCVV_1] - Credit card CVV codes
• [ZIPCODE_1] - ZIP/Postal codes
• [ACCOUNTNUMBER_1] - Account numbers

Compliance and Privacy

Redaction helps with compliance requirements for:

• HIPAA: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (healthcare data)
• GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation (EU data protection)
• CCPA: California Consumer Privacy Act (California data protection)
• PCI DSS: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (payment card data)
• SOC 2: System and Organization Controls (security and privacy)