Frequently asked questions about Biffer

Yes, entirely. Analysis, preview, replacement, export and restoration all happen on your computer. Your files, every fragment of text and the metadata stay on your computer, and processing happens without a connection: you can disconnect from the network before starting a job and everything works exactly the same. The only interaction with biffer.fr is the initial sign-in, once per computer: you enter your email address in the software, click the link you receive, and Biffer obtains the key tied to your address and to the machine. This step involves only your email address and the machine identifier; your files stay with you, at that moment as during every job.

Five families: PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), CSV and text (.txt and .md). In each case, the output file is of the same type as the input file and the formatting is preserved: an Excel workbook stays an Excel workbook with its sheets, a Word contract keeps its styles, a PDF is rewritten in place with no conversion. Metadata (author, company, comment authors) is cleared on export. If you work with a format missing from this list, write to us: user requests shape the next versions.

Yes. A scanned PDF is a series of page images, with no text layer. Biffer includes character recognition (OCR) that reads these images on your computer, offline, then applies the same detection as for a text file. The data found is then redacted by blacking out the pixels, directly in the image: this redaction is permanent, which guarantees that masked data stays masked in the shared file; for these files, processing is therefore done without aliases or a mapping table. The preview lets you check the result of the recognition and add by hand a name or number that was misread. PDFs produced by office software, on the other hand, contain text and are rewritten with aliases, like Word or Excel.

Biffer detects people (last name, first name, title followed by a name), emails, phone numbers, postal addresses, dates, license plates, and identifiers with a check digit: French company numbers SIREN and SIRET with the Luhn check, the French social security number with its key, IBAN with the modulo 97 check. Only numbers that pass the check are flagged, which spares you false alarms. The success rate depends on the nature of each document; what we guarantee is the preview: everything detected is highlighted and you review it before export.

Both are corrected in the preview. A false positive, for example a street name taken for a person, can be unchecked: the data stays as it is in the final document. A missed item, for example a rare name or an internal reference, is fixed by selecting the text and adding it: Biffer then finds every occurrence of that selection and handles them under the same alias. If the same item is missed from one document to the next, add a custom field by keyword so that it is detected from the next analysis onward.

When you process a document, Biffer offers to save a mapping table that links each alias (PERSONNE_001, EMAIL_002) to the value it replaces. When the AI's answer, or the document returned by a third party, comes back with these aliases, you give it to Biffer together with the table: each alias gets its original value back, and you get a complete text. Restoration happens on your computer, with no connection. Without a table, the processing is permanent by design: that is the setting to choose when the document must stay anonymous for good.

The encrypted table is protected by a password you choose, with Argon2id to derive the key and AES-256-GCM for encryption. You alone hold the password that opens it. This is the form we recommend as soon as the document or the table circulates, for example between colleagues or on a shared drive. The plain-text table can be read without a password: it suits a quick job on a computer only you use, provided you delete it afterward.

The encryption does its job fully: the table stays closed to everyone, us included, and that is what protects your data. You still have your original document: you can read the AI's answer alongside it, or run the job again with a new table and a new password. Our advice: store the password in your password manager as soon as you create it.

Eighteen profiles are available: lawyer, accountant, notary, doctor and healthcare professionals, human resources, insurer and broker, trainer and training organization, real estate and property management, administrator, banking, local government, in-house legal counsel, IT, sales, construction, bailiff (commissaire de justice), teacher and social worker. Each profile enables a list of predefined fields, mostly French identifiers: bar locker number (toque) and RG case number for lawyers, RPPS and ADELI for doctors, CRPCEN for notaries, NDA registration number for training organizations, claim, policy and contract numbers for insurers, employee ID for HR, EU VAT number for accountants. Profession fields are included from the free plan, with no add-on to buy. Detailed profiles are on the professions page.

Yes. If your business uses an identifier of its own, a file number prefix, a customer code, an internal reference, you add it yourself by keyword in Biffer's settings. The field is then handled exactly like the built-in types: it gets its own stable alias, for example DOSSIER_001, you choose its policy (pseudonymize, mask or keep) and it appears in the highlighted preview at each analysis. Custom fields are included from the free plan. They stay on your computer, in the software's local account.

In Word and PDF documents, each redacted item is not only replaced by its alias but also highlighted in black, with the text in white, like a marker stroke on a redacted document. The reader sees at once where the document was changed, and the alias stays readable so that the AI or the third party can reason about it. Highlighting is on by default; you can turn it off before export if you prefer a document that looks unchanged. On restoration, when you put back the original values with the mapping table, the highlighting is removed along with the aliases.

Yes, with no time limit. The free plan lets you redact five files per month with every feature: PDF, Word, Excel, CSV, text, images and scanned PDFs, the eighteen professions, custom fields, black highlighting, the mapping table, restoration and the queue. An email address is enough, with no bank card and no password to remember. The first time you open the software, you enter your email address and click the confirmation link you receive: this happens once per computer and delivers the key tied to your address and to the machine. The monthly counter is kept on your computer and resets on the first day of the month. When you need more than five files, a license at €10 excl. VAT (€12 incl. VAT) makes the number of files unlimited.

The key is tied to your email address and to the computer's identifier. It is delivered through sign-in in the software: the first time you open it, Biffer asks for your address, you click the confirmation link you receive, and the key, free or unlimited depending on your plan, is installed on that machine. This choice is consistent with offline operation: file processing always happens without a connection; only this initial step needs one. If you change computers, you sign in the same way on the new one; for an unlimited license, you transfer it from your biffer.fr account to the new identifier, and the old key is revoked immediately, at no cost and without writing to us. A license covers one computer; for a second computer, Mac or PC, you need a second license.

Bulk purchase happens on the same page: at checkout, you enter the number of licenses you need, at €10 excl. VAT (€12 incl. VAT) each, and pay once by bank card via Stripe. The licenses appear in your biffer.fr account, and you assign them to your colleagues by entering their email addresses. Each person signs in to Biffer with that email address, on their own computer, and receives their unlimited key themselves. When someone leaves the organization, you remove their license: their key is revoked and the license becomes available again. An invoice in the organization's name is issued on request at contact@biffer.fr.

Biffer is available on Mac. The Windows version, Biffer for PC, is available: same software, same features, same price, for 64-bit Windows 10 and 11. Both versions share the same operation, the same formats, the same policies and the same price: €10 excl. VAT (€12 incl. VAT), lifetime license for the version purchased. Biffer for Mac and Biffer for PC are two separate licenses, each tied to one computer. The Windows version is downloaded from the same page as the Mac version: you choose when you download.

One price: €10 excl. VAT (€12 incl. VAT) for Biffer for Mac, €10 excl. VAT (€12 incl. VAT) for Biffer for PC, VAT included in the second figure. You pay once: the license is for life for the version purchased (currently Biffer 2.1.0), tied to one computer and not transferable to another machine. Minor updates to that version are free; a new major version (2, 3...) is a new product, which you may buy again if you wish, with no obligation. Payment is by bank card via Stripe, which sends a receipt by email; an invoice is issued on request at contact@biffer.fr. Before any purchase, the free plan lets you test every feature on five files per month, with no time limit.

First by keeping it with you: all processing happens on your computer, without a connection, and your data stays in your hands, out of reach of the publisher and of any third party. Then by leaving the decision to you at each step: highlighted preview, policies by data type, the choice to create a mapping table or not. Finally, when you choose an encrypted table, through strong encryption (Argon2id and AES-256-GCM) for which you alone hold the password. File metadata is cleared on export.

Biffer contributes directly to it, and we prefer to be precise. It pseudonymizes: it replaces personal data with aliases. As long as a mapping table exists, the data remains pseudonymized within the meaning of the GDPR and the regulation still applies. Without a table and without any reasonable means of re-identification, you come closer to anonymization. Removing data before sending greatly reduces exposure, and it is the easiest measure to demonstrate. The legal assessment, the review and the decision to send remain your responsibility: Biffer gives you the means to handle them.