Conversation history redaction
Conversation history redaction detects and removes sensitive information from your conversation data before it is stored. When enabled, detected entities are replaced with placeholders in transcripts and analysis, and with a bleep sound in audio recordings.
This feature is available to enterprise clients only. Contact sales for access.
Overview
When a conversation ends, a post-processing step scans the transcript and audio for sensitive entities. Any detected entities are redacted before the conversation data is stored:
- Transcripts and analysis: Entity instances are replaced with
[ENTITY_NAME](e.g.[NAME],[EMAIL_ADDRESS]). - Audio: Entity instances are replaced with a bleep sound.
- Webhooks: Transcript and audio webhooks also contain redacted data.
Because post-processing runs after the conversation ends, there will be a short delay before the conversation appears in your history.
Configuration
The redaction configuration has two fields:
How redaction works
Placeholder format
Each redacted entity is replaced with its type name in uppercase brackets. For example, if email_address is configured, an email like john@example.com in the transcript becomes [EMAIL_ADDRESS].
Parent and child entities
Entities follow a hierarchy using dot notation. You can configure redaction at any level:
- Parent entity (e.g.
name): Redacts all child entities under it. All matches use the parent placeholder — for example, both given names and family names are replaced with[NAME]. - Child entity (e.g.
name.name_given): Redacts only that specific type, using its own placeholder[NAME_GIVEN].
If you pass both a parent entity and one of its children, the child entry is ignored since the parent already covers it.
Example
Configuring ["name", "email_address", "financial_id.payment_card.payment_card_number"] will:
- Replace all names (given, family, other) with
[NAME] - Replace email addresses with
[EMAIL_ADDRESS] - Replace payment card numbers with
[PAYMENT_CARD_NUMBER]
Supported entities
Name
Contact
Personal information
Credentials
Web
Organization
Financial identifiers
Location
Date
Unique identifiers
Medical
Entity detection operates on dynamic conversational data and does not have a 100% detection rate. Recall is prioritized over precision — the system is more likely to redact too much rather than too little — but enabling this feature alone does not guarantee compliance with any specific regulation.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if entity detection fails?
If an error occurs during entity detection, the system falls back to Zero Retention Mode behavior, where no conversation data is stored.
Does redaction prevent ElevenLabs from accessing conversation data?
No. Redaction applies to stored conversation history visible to you. ElevenLabs may still have access to conversation data through internal logs. To prevent this, enable Zero Retention Mode.
Why is there a delay before my conversation appears?
When redaction is enabled, a post-processing step runs after each conversation to detect and redact entities. This introduces a short delay before the conversation appears in your history.
Will more configuration options be available?
Yes. This feature is in early stages, and more flexible configuration options will be supported in the future.