Anonymize social work case notes for AI
The need to anonymize social work case notes for AI concerns social workers, youth workers, family and social economy advisers, court-appointed guardians and the teams of social welfare centers (CCAS), French departments and associations. Social reports, assessments, aid applications and follow-up notes describe a person's private life: income, health, family, housing, protection measure. These files are covered by professional secrecy, and Biffer lets you prepare them before turning to an AI. Biffer processes them on the professional's computer, with no connection, and replaces each identifier with a stable alias.
This page describes the files concerned, the duty of secrecy, the AI uses and the fields of the social worker profile.
Reports, assessments, aid applications: social work files
Social work writing links an identity to a situation of vulnerability: these are highly sensitive documents.
- Social reports and situation notes (Word, PDF): identity, household composition, income, housing, life history, benefits claimant number.
- Assessments: autonomy assessment, MDPH file with its number (the French disability services center), assessment of a child welfare concern.
- Aid applications: financial aid, housing solidarity fund (FSL), CCAS aid, application number, supporting documents attached.
- Protection and support measures: measure number (guardianship, curatorship, educational support in the home, social support measures), reports to the judge, management accounts.
- Accommodation: place or accommodation number, residence agreements, admissions to shelters (CHRS).
Biffer processes PDF, Word, Excel, CSV and text files while preserving the formatting: a report keeps its headings, a tracking sheet keeps its columns. Documents scanned as images go through built-in optical character recognition, offline, then are redacted by blacking out the pixels, with no possible restoration. The general method is described on the page anonymize a document.
The social worker's professional secrecy
In France, Article L221-6 of the Social Action and Families Code places under professional secrecy, under the terms of Article 226-13 of the French Criminal Code, anyone who takes part in child welfare services. Social workers are bound by it through their status, other professionals through their duties. Sharing information between professionals is strictly regulated and limited to people who are themselves bound by secrecy. Biffer lets you stay within this framework when you turn to an AI.
The GDPR adds another layer: health data, criminal convictions, ethnic origin or beliefs that appear in a report are special categories of data under Article 9 of the GDPR, and they call for stronger security measures. Three practical consequences.
- A benefits claimant number, an MDPH number or a measure number identify the person as surely as their name: they are redacted with it.
- The account of a situation remains identifying if places, dates and family members are kept.
- Where processing happens matters: with offline software, files stay in the department and the data flow remains entirely in your hands.
Biffer prepares, you validate: the professional reviews the preview and the department has the final word on what it shares.
AI use cases and the Biffer workflow
Once pseudonymized, social work writing can benefit from an AI for formatting and summarizing.
- Structure a social report from interview notes.
- Summarize several years of a case file before a panel or a hearing.
- Rephrase a letter to a service user in clear, accessible language.
- Prepare an outline for a management report under a protection measure.
The workflow is the same every time.
- You drop the file into Biffer with the social worker profile enabled.
- The local analysis highlights people, dates, addresses, phone numbers, French social security number, IBAN, benefits claimant, beneficiary, MDPH, measure, aid and accommodation numbers.
- You untick false positives (the name of a scheme, of the department) and add what is missing, for example the first name of a child mentioned without a surname, all occurrences at once.
- The document comes out with stable aliases (PERSONNE_001, ALLOCATAIRE_001 for a claimant, MESURE_002 for a measure; the alias labels are in French); in Word and PDF, redacted data is highlighted in black, an option enabled by default.
- The mapping table, encrypted or in plain text, restores the original values in the report structured by the AI.
The queue processes a complete case file with the same aliases from one document to the next. Biffer is free for five files per month, after a one-time email confirmation in the software; beyond that, Biffer for Mac or Biffer for PC costs €10 excl. VAT (€12 incl. VAT) per computer, paid once: unlimited files, lifetime license tied to the computer, all redaction features included (see the pricing page). The steps are detailed on the features page.
The fields the social worker profile recognizes
The social worker profile adds social and medico-social identifiers to the general detections. Here is the exact list, as it appears in the software.
| Field | Where you find it |
|---|---|
| Benefits claimant number | CAF or MSA certificates (family benefits funds), aid applications, reports |
| Beneficiary number | Integration schemes, RSA (minimum income), departmental aid |
| MDPH number | Notifications, application files, support plans |
| Measure number | Guardianships, curatorships, home educational support, reports to the judge |
| Aid / application number | Financial aid, FSL, CCAS, online desks |
| Accommodation / place number | SIAO (accommodation referral service), CHRS, residence agreements, admissions |
On top of these come the four fields shared by all professions (file number, reference, contract number, employee ID) and the general detections: people, emails, phone numbers, postal addresses, French company numbers (SIREN and SIRET), French social security number with key check, IBAN, license plates, dates. For an identifier specific to your department, the custom keyword field described on the professions page does the rest. The healthcare profile can be added if needed. Biffer is published by Romain Rissoan, trainer, consultant and founder of OPCADIA, in Lyon.
Frequently asked questions
Does a social report remain identifying once the names are replaced?
It can, and that is the point to master. An account that keeps the town, the date of birth, the household composition and the name of the children's school sometimes makes it possible to recognize a family, especially in a small town. Biffer handles dates, addresses and people, including children's first names mentioned alone when they are in its dictionary; for the rest, the preview lets you add any value that seems too precise, once for all occurrences. We advise rereading the pseudonymized text and asking whether a colleague in the area would recognize the situation, then adjusting before export. Biffer prepares, your professional judgment decides.
Can Biffer be used for free on a shared computer?
Yes. The free plan gives five files per month with every feature, with no time limit: the first time it is opened on the computer, an email address is entered in the software and confirmed through the link received, once per computer, with no password; the software then works offline, and the monthly counter is kept on the machine. For higher volumes, Biffer for Mac or Biffer for PC costs €10 excl. VAT (€12 incl. VAT) per computer, paid by card (Stripe): a lifetime license for the version purchased, tied to that computer, unlimited files. Every feature is included: social worker profile, queue, mapping table, black highlighting. On a shared computer, the license is tied to the machine and serves everyone who uses it.
What should you do with the mapping table of a sensitive case file?
The mapping table links each alias to its real value: it is as sensitive as the case file itself. Biffer offers to encrypt it with a password (Argon2id and AES-256-GCM) at export; this is the choice we recommend for social work. The table stays on your disk, in the location you choose, and never leaves the computer. If the report produced by the AI does not need to return to its named form, for example for a practice review, you can do without the table: the pseudonymization is then irreversible.
Your business documents anonymized, ready to be published or handed to an AI tool.
Biffer runs on your computer without sending a single file. Free for five files a month, unlimited for €10 excl. VAT per computer.
100% offline · Free: 5 files a month · No file sent