Questions, answered in the same terms as the product.

PiBye lets you use AI on client documents without handing over your clients’ identities. On your Mac, it finds names, ID numbers, addresses and postal codes, lets you approve or keep each one, and replaces approved items with stable tokens such as [PERSON_001]. The key stays on your Mac, so when the AI’s work comes back, PiBye restores the real details into the document locally.

Yes. Import a PDF into PiBye and review the detected items locally. PDF copies for sharing use an explicitly approved flattened format; searchable text, forms and interactive features are not retained.

PiBye is for people who want to review and redact documents on their Mac before using AI. Share approved copies with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or another assistant. Claude Desktop and the ChatGPT desktop app also support an optional local connection to the approved Documents you select.

No. Your original documents never leave your Mac: PiBye prepares and restores them locally and has no cloud relay. Anything you choose to share with an assistant has already been redacted and reviewed by you. When you enable the optional local connection to Claude Desktop or the ChatGPT desktop app, that assistant can read the approved Markdown Documents you select and submit generated Markdown for review. Your AI provider processes whatever you share with it, remotely.

No, it is pseudonymized, and that is deliberate. Names, ID numbers, addresses and postal codes become tokens, and the key to reverse them never leaves your Mac. The AI provider receives the case with the identities swapped out and has no way to reverse the tokens; you keep the ability to put the real names back.

Because the key exists, privacy law in Canada, the EU and the UK still treats the copy as personal information in your hands. PiBye reduces what you disclose to an AI provider; it does not replace your own judgment on confidentiality and client consent.

Detection, review and restoration happen on your Mac. Original values and mappings remain in the private Vault; the Document contains the reviewed copy. Information you explicitly keep may remain in the approved copy, so review the complete copy before sharing it. Backups and cloud-synced folders follow your own Mac settings.

The packaged app includes local detection models and OCR. Import, review, preparing the approved copy and restoration work locally without downloading models at runtime.

PiBye accepts PDF, DOCX and text files. Text preserves its line endings. Supported DOCX content preserves document structure. Unsupported Word content, including embedded images or files, comments, tracked changes and external links, is blocked with an explanation.

Scanned PDFs are read with local OCR. OCR can misread characters, so compare the preview with the detected items. Flattened PDF output requires explicit confirmation and should be checked before sharing.

Yes. Each item can be approved, edited or kept. Required items must be resolved before you explicitly approve the final copy. A document with no detected items still needs your approval.

Yes. Lock PDF is built for sending completed forms to clients for review. It saves a static copy of each filled-in PDF form with every answer printed into the page and the fillable fields removed, so the client can check the answers but cannot retype, clear or reset them. The copy is saved beside the original as “(static).pdf”, and the original is not changed.

Drop one form or a whole bundle. PiBye lists any form it could not convert and leaves that one untouched.

Lock PDF runs on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded to a conversion service.

Related · Lock a fillable PDF form on Mac

Usually, yes, for client review and record-keeping. Some government forms, including many Canadian immigration (IRCC) forms, are Adobe XFA forms that show only “Please wait…” outside Adobe Reader. PiBye lays them out and saves a static copy for your records or your representative. Do not submit that copy to IRCC: IRCC requires its forms validated in Adobe Reader with 2D barcodes, uploaded unchanged online or printed with the barcodes for paper applications.

Related · Lock a fillable PDF form on Mac

Local detectors look for names, organizations, street addresses, full postal and ZIP codes, email addresses, phone numbers, dates (including dates of birth), nationalities, and supported ID numbers: Canadian SIN, UCI and IRCC file numbers, US SSN, A-numbers and EIN, passport numbers, work-permit and PR-card numbers, and payment card and IBAN numbers. You can choose the default detection categories in Settings. Detection is assistive and can miss information.

Province or state names, monetary amounts and generic occupations stay visible by policy, because a reviewer or an AI usually needs them to do the work. Street addresses, full postal and ZIP codes, dates of birth, cities and employers are replaced. Anything you choose to keep during review stays visible too.

Visible does not mean harmless: an unusual amount or a rare job title can still point to one person. Read the complete copy before you share it, and keep a rare title or an outlier amount out of it if it would identify the client.

The same source value uses a stable stand-in throughout a Document. You can edit a numbered stand-in such as [PERSON_001] to an alias such as [CLIENT]. Mappings remain independent across Documents unless you explicitly duplicate one.

Read the source and the complete prepared copy before sharing. If identifying information remains that you cannot resolve in Review, do not share the copy. Correct the source and import it again.

Against real documents and planted identifiers, and the results are published. The first battery ran 50,119 real public documents; independent checks found 84,037 identifiers and 24 were still readable after redaction; all 24 are counted and published, and they are number-shaped values from court filings. A second battery on harder material (completed forms, handwriting, French and Spanish) is still running and is not finished. Neither battery proves your document is clean: review every approved copy before sharing it.

The inside story, including what the independent check cannot see (it does not count personal names that survive) is on the test battery page.

The bundled detection models cover English and French. OCR also includes language models for Spanish and Portuguese; reading text through OCR does not imply equivalent detection accuracy in those languages.

No. PiBye detects text, not faces or visual identity. Photographs may remain visible in a PDF. Do not share a document containing visual information that you intended to keep private.

The current build targets Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 14.8.5 or later. There is no Intel build.

The current implementation is a native macOS application. No Windows, iPhone or browser-based document-processing app is offered here.

No. Lock PDF removes a form’s fillable fields and prints the answers into the page; it does not add a password or encryption. Anyone with a full PDF editor can still change a page, as with any PDF.

Related · Lock a fillable PDF form on Mac

No. PiBye's local processing and review controls are product behavior, not a certification or a guarantee that a particular use meets your professional obligations.

No. PiBye is a document utility. You decide whether a document and the service you plan to use are appropriate for your work.

Yes. The PiBye app is signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple, so macOS Gatekeeper opens it after the usual confirmation for apps downloaded from the internet. Updates are delivered through a signed update feed and verified before they install.

Yes. PiBye is a free download for Macs with Apple Silicon running macOS 14.8.5 or later. Your first 10 documents are free, so you can see it work on your own files before you pay. After that, $99 CAD one-time unlocks unlimited documents on one Mac with twelve months of updates.

Download PiBye and use it. Your first 10 documents are free, with everything switched on: redact, review, restore, Lock PDF and the Claude Desktop and ChatGPT desktop app connections. A document counts once, when PiBye first prepares it. There is no account, no card and no time limit, and free users still receive updates.

The count is kept only on your Mac. PiBye never contacts a server to count documents or to activate anything.

When you go to prepare an 11th document, PiBye asks you to buy a licence: $99 CAD one-time, which unlocks unlimited documents and includes twelve months of updates. Nothing you already have is taken away: documents you have already prepared, your saved matters, Restore and Lock PDF are never blocked.

After you pay, the licence arrives by email. Import it once in PiBye under Settings, Licence, Import update licence. Nothing is sent to a server to activate it.

No. There is no sign-up, no login and no subscription. You download the app and use it. If you buy, the licence file arrives by email and you import it once in Settings. Your documents and your count stay on your Mac.

PiBye is free for your first 10 documents. After that it is $99 CAD one-time for one person on one Mac, with unlimited documents and twelve months of updates. Renewing for another year of updates is optional at $39 CAD.

No. The version you have keeps working after its twelve months of included updates end. Renewing for $39 CAD adds another twelve months of updates from the renewal date.

Nothing breaks. PiBye keeps working, with unlimited documents, exactly as before. You simply stop receiving new versions until you choose to renew for $39 CAD, which adds another twelve months of updates.

No. A PiBye licence is for one person on one Mac. Each additional person or Mac needs its own licence.

Two ways. Copy the approved text into any AI chat, or connect Claude Desktop or the ChatGPT desktop app locally so they can read the approved copies you select. The connection runs on your Mac with no PiBye cloud relay, and the key to the real names never leaves your Mac. Your AI provider still processes what you share, which is the case with names and identifiers already replaced.

Setup: add approved Markdown to Documents, open the working copy, and use Copy Markdown to paste it into your AI chat. For the local connection, open Settings and choose your app, follow the setup (PiBye can write the Claude Desktop entry for you after you confirm; for the ChatGPT desktop app you paste the setup into its MCP servers settings), restart it, allow selected Documents, and check that PiBye's tools appear.

Keep PiBye open and unlocked while the assistant works: locking PiBye disconnects it, and access expires within 60 seconds if PiBye closes.

The current version supports both Claude Desktop and the ChatGPT desktop app. Older versions connect Claude Desktop only.

Open the same Document, choose the approved copy you shared, and drop the returned file into Restore. Review found and missing stand-ins, resolve any differences, then approve the final restoration. PiBye saves a separate restored file in the private Vault and preserves supported new text.

The PiBye connector does not give Claude or ChatGPT access to private Vault originals, restored files or mappings. You explicitly choose the approved Document copy to share. Values you choose to keep may remain identifying, so review the complete copy before sending it.