Question 1

How does Microsoft Presidio run 100% locally on macOS?

Accepted Answer

PII Finder packages the Microsoft Presidio engine directly inside the native macOS binary, compiled for Apple Silicon and Intel. When scanning files or text, all pattern recognition, contextual entity analysis, and high-entropy Shannon evaluation run entirely in local RAM on your Mac. No network sockets are opened, and no data is ever transmitted to remote servers.

Question 2

What technical PII entities, secrets, and high-entropy patterns are detected?

Accepted Answer

The engine detects personal PII (Full Names, US SSNs, Credit Card Numbers, Email Addresses, Phone Numbers, Physical Addresses) as well as developer secrets: Stripe API keys (sk_live), OpenAI keys (sk-proj), AWS Access Keys, GitHub PATs, Slack/SendGrid tokens, JWT tokens, and high-entropy Shannon strings (database passwords & RSA private keys in .env files).

Question 3

How does the Real-Time Directory Watcher and Finder Sensitivity Tagging work?

Accepted Answer

Just like a virus scanner, Directory Watcher monitors your designated directories (like ~/Downloads or ~/Documents) using native macOS FileSystem event listeners. When a new or modified file is detected, PII Finder automatically evaluates its sensitivity and applies native macOS Finder color tags (Red for Critical PII like SSNs and API keys, Orange for Financial data, Yellow for Contact PII, and Green for Clean files) so you immediately know the risk before opening or sharing.

Question 4

How does the macOS Right-Click Context Menu quick redaction work?

Accepted Answer

PII Finder integrates directly into the macOS Quick Actions context menu. You can right-click any single file or directory directly inside Finder, select "⚡ Redact PII with PII Finder", and the app will generate a clean, sanitized copy right next to the original in milliseconds.

Question 5

Is PII Finder a subscription or a one-time purchase?

Accepted Answer

PII Finder is available for a $14.99 early-adopter launch special ($19.99 regular) as a single one-time purchase on the Mac App Store. No recurring monthly subscriptions, no seat tiers, and no hidden fees. Your purchase includes lifetime updates and Apple Family Sharing.

Question 6

Can I set up custom secure seeds for internal company codenames and IPs?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can define custom seed rules to replace specific values (e.g. internal server IP addresses, confidential project codenames, or custom account IDs) with consistent anonymized placeholders across all your documents and logs.

Question 7

Does PII Finder help with GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC2 compliance?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. By sanitizing sensitive healthcare numbers (SSNs/MRNs) and personal data locally before uploading prompts to external LLMs or third-party vendors, PII Finder satisfies HIPAA Safe Harbor redaction standards, GDPR Article 32 data security controls, and SOC2 confidentiality requirements.

Privacy Policy

1. 100% On-Device Processing Architecture

2. Zero Telemetry & Zero Data Collection

3. Real-Time Finder Guard & File Permissions

4. App Store Licensing & Transactions

5. Contact Us