anonym.legal - User Guide

Last Updated: January 30, 2026

Welcome to anonym.legal#

What Does anonym.legal Do?#

Imagine you wrote a story about your friend Sarah who lives at 123 Maple Street and her phone number is 555-1234. Now you want to share that story online, but you do not want everyone to know Sarah's real name, address, or phone number.

That is exactly what anonym.legal helps you do! It is like a magic highlighter that:

1. Finds personal information in your text (like names, emails, phone numbers, and addresses)
2. Hides that information so people cannot see it

Why Is This Important?#

There are some big reasons why hiding personal information matters:

• Privacy - You would not want strangers knowing your home address or phone number, right? The same goes for everyone else.
• Laws - In many countries, there are rules (like GDPR in Europe) that say companies MUST protect people's personal information. If they do not, they can get in big trouble.
• Safety - Keeping personal details private helps keep people safe from scammers and identity thieves.

Getting Started#

Creating an Account#

Getting started is easy:

1. Go to anonym.legal
2. Click the "Get Started Free" or "Sign Up" button
3. Type in your email address
4. Create a password (it needs to have at least 8 characters with uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters like ! or @)
5. Check your email inbox and click the verification link
6. Done! You now have 200 free tokens to use

Logging In#

Already have an account? Here is how to sign in:

1. Go to anonym.legal
2. Click "Sign In" in the top right corner
3. Type your email and password
4. If you set up extra security (called two-factor authentication), enter the code from your phone app
5. You are in!

Tip: If you type the wrong password 5 times in a row, your account gets locked for 30 minutes. This is for your safety!

Understanding Tokens#

Think of tokens like arcade game tokens. Every time you use anonym.legal to find or hide personal information, it costs a few tokens.

• Free Plan: You get 200 tokens every 30 days
• Paid Plans: You get more tokens (1,000 to 10,000 depending on your plan)

You can see how many tokens you have in the sidebar menu. Do not worry - most tasks only cost 1 to 10 tokens!

The Main Page (/app/anonymize)#

When you log in and go to the main app, you will see one page that can do three different things. You can switch between them using the tabs at the top:

The Three Modes#

Think of it like a traffic light:

• Analyze = Yellow light (look carefully)
• Anonymize = Green light (go ahead and hide it)
• Decrypt = Reverse (go back to the original)

Finding Personal Information (Analyze Mode)#

Want to see what personal information is hiding in your text? Here is how:

Step 1: Paste Your Text#

Copy the text you want to check and paste it into the big text box.

Step 2: Choose What to Look For#

Click on the checkboxes to select what types of personal information you want to find:

• PERSON - Names like "John Smith" or "Maria Garcia"
• EMAIL_ADDRESS - Email addresses like "john@example.com"
• PHONE_NUMBER - Phone numbers like "555-123-4567"
• LOCATION - Places like "New York" or "123 Main Street"
• CREDIT_CARD - Credit card numbers
• DATE_TIME - Dates and times
• And many more!

Step 3: Pick a Language#

anonym.legal works in 48 different languages! Pick the language your text is written in from the dropdown menu.

Some popular choices:

• English
• German
• Spanish
• French
• Chinese
• Japanese
• Arabic
• And 41 more!

Step 4: Click Analyze#

Press the big "Analyze" button and wait a moment.

Step 5: See the Results#

The personal information gets highlighted in different colors! You will also see a table showing:

• What was found
• What type it is (name, email, phone, etc.)
• How confident the system is that it found the right thing

Hiding Personal Information (Anonymize Mode)#

Now for the fun part - hiding that personal information! There are 5 different ways to hide information:

The 5 Hiding Methods#

1. Replace

What it does: Swaps the personal info with a placeholder

Example:

• Before: "Call John at 555-1234"
• After: "Call [PERSON] at [PHONE]"

Best for: When you want people to know SOMETHING was there, but not what

2. Redact

What it does: Removes the info completely and puts stars (***) in its place

Example:

• Before: "Call John at 555-1234"
• After: "Call *** at ***"

Best for: Maximum privacy - no clues left behind

3. Mask

What it does: Shows just the first and last letters, hides the middle

Example:

• Before: "john@example.com"
• After: "j***@e***.com"

Best for: When you want to give a hint about what was there

4. Hash

What it does: Turns the info into a random jumble of letters and numbers

Example:

• Before: "John Smith"
• After: "a7f3c9d2e1b8..."

Best for: When you need a unique code but cannot reverse it (one-way only!)

Warning: You can NEVER get the original back from a hash!

5. Encrypt

What it does: Scrambles the info with a secret key - you can unscramble it later!

Example:

• Before: "John Smith"
• After: "Enc{x9k2mP4qR7...}"

Best for: When you might need to see the original information again later

Important: You MUST remember your encryption key! Without it, you cannot get the original back.

How to Anonymize#

1. Paste your text in the input box
2. Choose which entity types to look for
3. Select how you want to hide each type (replace, redact, mask, hash, or encrypt)
4. If using encrypt, enter your secret key (must be 16, 24, or 32 characters)
5. Click "Anonymize"
6. Check the before and after
7. Copy the result or download it as a file

Getting Information Back (Decrypt Mode)#

Remember how we talked about the "Encrypt" option? This is where you undo it!

When Can You Decrypt?#

• Encrypted data: YES, you can decrypt it
• Hashed data: NO, hashing is one-way only
• Redacted data: NO, the original is gone forever
• Masked data: NO, the hidden parts are gone
• Replaced data: NO, the original is not saved

How to Decrypt#

1. Switch to the Decrypt tab
2. Paste your encrypted text (it will have parts that look like "Enc{...}")
3. Enter the SAME encryption key you used before
4. Click "Decrypt"
5. The original information appears!

Remember: If you forget your encryption key, there is no way to get the original information back. Keep your keys safe!

Using Presets#

What Are Presets?#

Presets are like recipe cards. Instead of picking all your settings every single time, you save them once and use them again with one click!

Built-in Presets#

anonym.legal comes with some ready-made presets:

• General PII Detection - Finds the most common personal info
• GDPR Compliance - Follows European privacy rules
• HIPAA Medical - For medical and health information
• Financial Services - For banks and money-related stuff
• Development & Testing - For programmers testing their code
• Multi-Language European - Works across European languages

Using a Preset#

1. In the Analyzer or Anonymizer, look for the "Preset" dropdown
2. Click on it and choose a preset
3. All the settings are automatically filled in
4. You can still change things if you want to

Creating Your Own Preset#

1. Set up the Analyzer or Anonymizer exactly how you like it
2. Click "Save as Preset"
3. Give it a name (like "My School Project Preset")
4. Add a description so you remember what it is for
5. Save it!

Now your preset will appear in the dropdown list for next time.

Editing and Deleting Presets#

• Click the pencil icon to edit a preset you made
• Click the trash icon to delete it
• Note: You cannot edit or delete the built-in presets

Custom Entities#

What Are Custom Entities?#

The built-in entity types (like PERSON, EMAIL, PHONE) work great for common stuff. But what if you need to find something specific, like:

• Student ID numbers at your school
• Product codes at a company
• License plate numbers
• Custom reference numbers

That is where custom entities come in! You teach anonym.legal to recognize new patterns.

AI Entity Creation#

Do not know how to write complex patterns? No problem! The AI can help:

1. Go to the Entities section
2. Click "Create Entity with AI"
3. Describe what you want to find in plain English
   • Example: "Student IDs that look like STU-12345"
4. Give some examples of what it should find
5. The AI creates the pattern for you
6. Test it to make sure it works
7. Save your new entity!

Note: AI entity creation uses 50 tokens and requires a paid plan.

Manual Entity Creation#

If you know regular expressions (regex), you can create entities manually:

1. Click "Create Entity"
2. Enter a name and description
3. Write your regex pattern
4. Provide positive examples (things it SHOULD find)
5. Provide negative examples (things it should NOT find)
6. Test and save

Batch Processing#

What Is Batch Processing?#

Instead of processing one text at a time, batch processing lets you handle MANY texts at once. It is like doing laundry - you can wash one sock at a time, or throw a whole pile in!

How to Use Batch Processing#

1. Go to the Batch tab
2. Add multiple texts (each in its own box, or upload files)
3. Select your entity types and settings
4. Click "Process Batch"
5. All your texts get processed together
6. Download all the results at once

What You Can Export#

• Individual processed files
• A ZIP file with everything
• A CSV summary of what was found
• Metadata about the processing

Note: Batch processing requires the Basic plan or higher.

Account Settings#

Changing Your Password#

1. Click on Settings in the sidebar
2. Go to the Account tab
3. Click "Change Password"
4. Enter your current password
5. Enter your new password (follow the requirements!)
6. Confirm your new password
7. Click "Update Password"

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)#

Two-factor authentication is like having two locks on your door. Even if someone guesses your password, they still need your phone to get in!

Setting Up 2FA

1. Go to Settings then Security
2. Find "Two-Factor Authentication"
3. Choose your method:
   • Authenticator App (recommended) - Use an app like Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator
   • Email - Get codes sent to your email
4. Follow the setup steps
5. Save your backup codes somewhere safe!

Using 2FA

After setup, logging in works like this:

1. Enter your email and password
2. Open your authenticator app (or check your email)
3. Type in the 6-digit code
4. You are in!

Viewing Token Usage#

1. Go to Settings then Tokens
2. You can see:
   • How many tokens you have left
   • How many you have used
   • When your tokens refresh
   • A history of what you used tokens on

Managing Sessions#

Want to see where you are logged in?

1. Go to Settings then Security
2. Scroll to "Active Sessions"
3. You can see all the devices and browsers where you are signed in
4. Click "Revoke" to log out of any device you do not recognize
5. Click "Revoke All Other Sessions" to log out everywhere except where you are now

Other Tools#

Desktop App#

Want maximum privacy when anonymizing documents? The desktop app keeps your files on your device!

Features:

• Documents stay on your computer — only extracted text is sent for analysis
• Encrypted vault for secure local storage
• Batch processing for multiple files
• Military-grade encryption for stored data
• Works on Windows, Mac, and Linux

How to get it: Download from the anonym.legal website under "Downloads"

Office Add-in#

Use Microsoft Word or Excel a lot? The Office Add-in lets you anonymize text right inside your documents!

Features:

• Works in Microsoft Word
• Works in Microsoft Excel
• No copy-pasting needed
• Select text and anonymize it directly
• Syncs your presets from the website

How to get it: Install from the Microsoft Office Add-ins store or the anonym.legal website

MCP Server#

For people who use AI tools like Claude, there is an MCP Server that connects anonym.legal to your AI assistant.

What it does:

• Lets AI tools use anonym.legal features
• Anonymize text through AI conversations
• Analyze documents automatically

Note: This is for advanced users and requires the Pro plan.

Quick Tips#

Do#

• Save your encryption keys somewhere safe
• Use presets to save time
• Check your token balance regularly
• Set up two-factor authentication for security
• Review the highlighted results before downloading

Do Not#

• Forget your encryption keys (you cannot recover encrypted data without them!)
• Share your password with anyone
• Use the same encryption key for everything
• Skip the verification step when signing up

Plans at a Glance#

Need Help?#

If you get stuck or have questions:

1. Check the FAQ section on the website
2. Visit the support page at anonym.legal/support
3. Look at the other guides in the documentation

Glossary (Words to Know)#

Last Updated: January 30, 2026