A useful document can contain more information than your AI task needs. Before uploading a PDF to ChatGPT, asking Claude to summarize a report, or pasting an internal brief into another AI tool, decide which details belong in the conversation.
1. Start with the task.
Write down the question you want AI to answer. If you only need a summary of a project timeline, a full client contact list is unnecessary. Share the smallest amount of relevant context that still makes the task useful.
2. Review names and direct identifiers.
Look for personal names, email addresses, phone numbers, mailing addresses, account references, and employee or customer IDs. Read headers, footers, margins, signatures, and tables as well as the main paragraphs. Veil lets you mark private areas manually; it is not an automatic personal-information detector.
3. Review details that identify indirectly.
A role, location, date, or unusual transaction can reveal information even after a name is removed. Consider whether a combination of details would identify a person, client, or confidential situation. Cover additional context where it is not needed for the task.
4. Create a separate redacted copy.
Keep the original for your records. In Veil, draw opaque rectangles over the areas you intend to remove, then choose a flattened PDF or PNG. These outputs replace the marked pixels rather than placing removable PDF annotations over the source text.
5. Match the format to the AI tool.
A flattened PDF is made of page images. Use an AI tool that accepts scanned PDFs or images. If your task needs plain text, a text-based PDF can use Veil’s reviewed text export. Text items touching a marked area are replaced with [REDACTED]. Read the complete text review: PDF extraction can surface text that was not obvious in the page preview. Scans and image uploads require OCR elsewhere if text is needed.
6. Review the final output before sharing.
Check every exported page and any text you plan to paste. Review your organization’s information-sharing rules and the AI provider’s privacy and retention settings. Veil helps reduce the information you share; it cannot guarantee that a particular document is appropriate for a particular AI service.
Put a boundary around your next prompt.
Start with three free document export attempts each month. Every export click counts, including repeats and canceled or failed attempts.
Prepare a document