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Philter
What it is
Philter is open source software that identifies and redacts personally identifiable and protected health information in text. For detected entities, users can choose to mask, encrypt, replace them with synthetic values, drop them or pass them through. Policies, custom dictionaries and identifier patterns such as medical record numbers and transaction IDs let users configure detection. Its General Purpose, Healthcare and COVID-19 NLP lenses address different kinds of text. Philter provides an HTTP REST API, a Java SDK and an OpenAPI specification for generating clients in other languages. It can run in a private environment or through AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure marketplaces. The maker says it runs in the customer’s environment and does not send text to third-party services; it can also run in firewalled or air-gapped environments. Redaction requests are recorded in a tamper-evident, hash-chained audit log that can be queried and exported to CSV. Detection is probabilistic, so results should be checked against an organization’s own data before production use. The open source toolkit has community support; commercial licenses include direct support.
For and against
For
- Supports multiple actions for detected text.
- Users can define policies and custom identifier patterns.
- Can run in firewalled or air-gapped environments.
- Audit records can be queried and exported to CSV.
- Open source toolkit has no usage caps.
Against
- Detection is probabilistic and needs validation.
- Community support for the open source toolkit.
- Commercial desktop use costs $100 USD per user per year.
The verdict
Philter offers configurable text redaction with customer-controlled processing and an audit trail. Its probabilistic detection means organizations should validate results against their own data before relying on them in production.
Who it suits
Philter may suit healthcare, finance, legal and government teams, as well as AI workloads that need text redaction. It is also aimed at teams adding redaction to APIs and data pipelines.
Plans and prices
Open source toolkit
Self-hosted · Apache 2.0 · No license keys · No usage caps
Read 2 Oct 2026 · philterd.ai
Philter Desktop — Personal & evaluation
Individual, non-commercial, and evaluation use · Full on-device redaction · Community support on GitHub
Read 2 Oct 2026 · philterd.ai
Philter Desktop — Commercial
Per user · Commercial use · Direct creator support · Updates, maintenance releases, and upgrades during subscription
Read 2 Oct 2026 · philterd.ai
On the record
- Accuracy limitation
- Detection is probabilistic, and the maker advises validating results against a customer’s own data before relying on them in production.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
- API and SDKs
- Philter provides an HTTP REST API, a Java SDK, and an OpenAPI specification for generating clients in other languages.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
- Audit trail
- Philter records redaction requests in a tamper-evident, hash-chained audit log in the customer’s datastore, which can be queried and exported to CSV.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
- Cloud deployment
- Philter can be deployed in a private environment or through AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure marketplaces.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
- Company history
- Philterd says it was founded in 2017 by Jeff Zemerick.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
- Data handling
- The maker says Philter runs in the customer’s environment and does not transmit text to third-party services; it can run in a firewalled or air-gapped environment.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
- Detection and actions
- It detects many entity types and lets users choose to mask, encrypt, replace with synthetic values, drop, or pass them through.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- The maker describes Philter for healthcare, finance, legal, government, and AI workloads, including teams adding redaction to APIs and data pipelines.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
- Models
- Philter offers General Purpose, Healthcare, and COVID-19 NLP lenses for different text types.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
- Open source and security
- The maker says its products are released under Apache 2.0, with source code publicly available on GitHub for inspection and self-building.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
- Policies and custom entities
- Users can define policies, custom dictionaries, and identifier patterns such as medical record numbers and transaction IDs.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
- Support
- The open source toolkit includes community support through documentation and GitHub issue trackers, while commercial licenses include direct support.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
- What it does
- Philter is open source software that redacts personally identifiable and protected health information from text.philterd.ai · read 2 Oct 2026
