1. Turn On PII Detection in Study Settings
PII detection is controlled at the study level.
To enable it:
Go to your Study Settings
Toggle on Detect and Delete PII
Once interviews begin coming in, this toggle cannot be turned off for that study. This ensures PII handling stays consistent throughout the project.
If personal information might come up in interviews, we recommend enabling this before launch.
2. What Gets Flagged
When enabled, Outset automatically scans responses for a broad range of personally identifiable information. We cast a wide net to help protect participant privacy.
Examples of PII we may flag include:
Names
Email addresses
Phone numbers
Physical or mailing addresses
Dates of birth
Social Security numbers
Driver’s license numbers
Passport numbers
Credit card or payment information
Bank account details
Other sensitive identifying numbers
This list is not exhaustive. If information could reasonably identify someone, it may be flagged.
PII is never automatically deleted. It is always flagged for your review.
When PII is detected, you’ll see:
A banner notification on the study
A notification on the Insights page
A “PII detected” tag applied to the study
3. Insights Are Paused Until PII Is Reviewed
If PII is detected, transcripts must be reviewed before interviews are analyzed for insights.
This means:
Interviews with flagged PII are not included in Insights
Analysis begins only after flagged content has been reviewed
Each flagged mention must be reviewed individually
To make this easier, Outset groups all flagged mentions into a single review step. You do not need to open and check every transcript separately unless you want to. Instead, you can review all flagged instances in one place and make decisions from there.
4. Review, Keep, or Permanently Delete PII
For each flagged mention, you can choose to:
Keep it, or
Delete it
If you delete a mention, it is permanently removed from everywhere — including transcripts, exports, insights, and backend storage. It cannot be recovered.
In the transcript, deleted content will appear as:
“This message contained PII and was deleted.”
This keeps the transcript readable while clearly indicating removed content.
5. Manually Flag PII the AI Misses
If you spot something that wasn’t automatically flagged, you can manually flag it in the transcript and delete it if needed.
All permission roles can flag and delete PII. Anyone collaborating on the study can help review and clear sensitive information.
The Detect and Delete PII feature helps you balance speed and privacy. By requiring review before analysis, it ensures insights are generated only from transcripts that have been properly cleared.
Hope this helps! If you have any further questions, please reach out to our team at [email protected] or via chat.