How to Anonymize PII in Text with an API

What Is Data Masking? Data masking is a technique that replaces sensitive information with realistic but fictitious data, preserving the format and structure of the original while removing its identifiable meaning. The goal is to keep data usable for development, testing, analytics, or sharing — without exposing real personally identifiable information (PII). Common masking techniques include: Substitution — Replace a real value with a plausible fake (e.g., Alice Smith → Jane Doe ). Masking (partial obscuring) — Show only a portion of the value (e.g., 4111-1111-1111-1234 → ****-****-****-1234 ). Redaction — Remove the value entirely. Hashing — Replace with a cryptographic hash. Irreversible, but deterministic when salted. Data masking is widely used in non-production environments, analytics pipelines, data marketplaces, and any scenario where real PII is not needed but structural fidelity is. What Is Dynamic Data Masking? Static data masking (SDM) applies transformations to data at rest — you clone a production database, mask it, and ship the masked copy to a lower environment. The masking happens once, and the result is a permanent dataset. Dynamic data masking (DDM) applies transformations on the fly , at query or API time, based on who is asking. The original data stays untouched; the masking rules are applied in the response layer. This means: Different roles see different levels of detail (e.g., support agents see the last 4 digits of a credit card; auditors see the full number). No masked copies to maintain — one source of truth, many views. Masking policies are centralized and enforceable without application changes. Veramask implements a DDM-style model over an API: you send a request with payload and settings, and receive back the transformed result in real time. No data is persisted on the server — each call is independent and stateless. Anonymizing PII with the Veramask API Veramask exposes two endpoints for dynamic PII masking: Endpoint Input Use Case PO