---
title: "PII Filter and Alerting"
slug: "pii-filter-and-alerting"
updated: 2026-08-25T14:35:15Z
published: 2026-08-25T14:35:15Z
canonical: "kb.expedient.com/pii-filter-and-alerting"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kb.expedient.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# PII Filter and Alerting

## Overview

AI CTRL includes a Personally Identifiable Information (PII) filter that detects and redacts PII entered directly into Secure Chat prompts. Expedient's auditing and compliance platform, Elastic, can generate alerts whenever a redacted entry appears.

The filter supports the following PII types:

- Email addresses
- Phone numbers
- Social Security Numbers (SSNs)
- Credit card numbers
- IP addresses

## How the PII Filter Works

The filter inspects text entered directly into an AI CTRL Secure Chat prompt. When it detects a supported PII type, it replaces the original value with a redacted placeholder in the format `[data type]-REDACTED`.

## Limitations

> **Important:** The PII filter does not scan the contents of documents added to a conversation, including files attached directly to a chat or content retrieved from a connected data source such as SharePoint. PII in those documents is not redacted and does not trigger a PII alert. Remove or redact PII that must not be exposed before making a document available to AI CTRL.

## Enable the PII Filter

Enabling the filter requires administrator access. It can be applied globally or to selected models only.

1. In AI CTRL Secure Chat, select your user profile in the lower-left corner.
2. Select **Admin Panel**.
3. Open **Functions** from the top menu.
4. Locate **PII Filter** and confirm it is toggled on.
5. Click the three-dot menu next to the PII Filter toggle.
6. Choose how the filter is applied: leave **Global** enabled to apply it to all models, or turn **Global** off to configure selected models only (see Apply the Filter to Models and Custom Models, below).

## Apply the Filter to Models and Custom Models

### Base Models

1. Open **Admin Panel → Settings → Models**.
2. Click the pencil icon for the model to configure.
3. Enable the PII Filter in the model settings.
4. Click **Save & Update**. Repeat for each additional model that requires the filter.

### Custom Models

1. Open **Workspace** and locate the custom model to configure.
2. Click the three-dot menu for the model and select **Edit**.
3. Under **Filters**, select **PII Filter**.
4. Save the changes. Repeat for each additional custom model that requires the filter.

## Configuring Redaction Settings

Each supported PII type is controlled independently. Disable redaction for one type without affecting the others. For example, to stop redacting email addresses:

1. Open **Admin Panel → Functions → PII Filter →** gear icon to open the **Valves** panel.
2. Find **Redact Email**.
3. Set **Redact Email** to a custom value and toggle it off.
4. Click **Save**.

> **Advanced customization:** To add redaction rules beyond the supported PII types, copy the PII Filter function and edit the copy. Don't modify the Expedient Deployed PII Filter directly: platform updates overwrite code changes made to it. Configuration and valve adjustments, by contrast, are preserved across updates.

## Set Up Alerting

### Import the Pre-Built Elastic PII Rule

Expedient provides a pre-built Elastic PII rule as an .ndjson file. Download the file before beginning.

1. In Kibana, go to **Security → Rules → Detection rules (SIEM)**.
2. Click **Import rules** in the upper-right corner.
3. Upload the downloaded **PII Rule.ndjson** file.
4. After the import completes, verify that the rule is enabled.

### Test the Alert

1. In AI CTRL Secure Chat, enter a test prompt containing PII, for example: "Tell me about John Doe 900-12-3456".
2. In Kibana, go to **Security → Alerts** and confirm that the PII alert appears.

![Image](https://cdn.document360.io/69e9f9c7-5da8-45e7-a671-4b8287f36122/Images/Documentation/cdn.webp)

> **Alert behavior:** A single conversation can produce multiple alerts. Later messages may carry earlier conversation history forward and generate additional alerts even when no new PII is entered, so repeated alerts from one conversation may all trace back to a single original detection. Start a new chat to avoid this.

### Configure Alert Notifications

Once the PII alert is confirmed working, configure Elastic to send alert notifications to external destinations. See [AI CTRL – Prompt Monitoring and Alerting](https://kb.expedient.com/docs/ai-ctrl-prompt-monitoring-and-alerting) for instructions on configuring connectors and alert actions.

## Related articles

- [AI CTRL – Prompt Monitoring and Alerting](https://kb.expedient.com/docs/ai-ctrl-prompt-monitoring-and-alerting)