# Auto-anonymisation: what gets removed

> RemakeCV removes names, contact details, employer names, institutions and other identifying markers from a CV while preserving achievements, metrics and seniority.

Source: https://www.remakecv.com/help/anonymisation-and-compliance/auto-anonymisation
Last updated: 2026-08-21

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RemakeCV's auto-anonymisation strips identifying information while keeping the substance intact. The candidate's name is replaced with a professional headline such as "Lead Data Scientist with 8 years of experience in e-commerce". Employers become industry descriptors, contact details are redacted, and quantified achievements are deliberately preserved.

## What gets removed or replaced?

| Element | What happens |
|---|---|
| Candidate name | Replaced with a **professional headline** — e.g. "Senior Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience in FinTech" |
| Email, phone, address | Replaced with `[REDACTED]` |
| LinkedIn, YouTube, website and social URLs | Replaced with `[REDACTED]` |
| Employer names | Replaced with an industry-and-type descriptor |
| Educational institutions | Replaced with a short neutral descriptor |
| Locations | Generalised to city or region level |
| Proprietary internal tool names | Genericised |
| Contact details inside bullet points | Removed |
| Photographs | Never present — the output is rebuilt from extracted text |

## What replaces the candidate's name?

Not initials, and not a blank. The name is replaced with a **professional headline** summarising seniority, years of experience and specialisation:

| Original | Anonymised |
|---|---|
| Jane Doe | Lead Data Scientist with 8 years of experience in e-commerce |
| — | Senior Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience in FinTech |

This is deliberate. A blank where a name should be tells a hiring manager nothing; a headline tells them immediately whether the candidate is worth reading, without revealing who they are.

## What is deliberately kept?

This is the part that distinguishes a useful anonymised CV from a useless one.

- **Quantified achievements.** "Managed a team of 10 and a budget of $500,000" survives verbatim. Strip the numbers and you have removed the evidence the client is hiring on.
- **Job titles and seniority.** The client still needs to know whether this is a manager or a director.
- **Date ranges and durations.** Career progression is visible.
- **Skills, tools and technologies.** Industry-standard tools are kept verbatim — Jira, Salesforce, AWS. Only *proprietary internal* tool names are genericised, since "AcmeCorp Internal Dashboard" identifies the employer.
- **Industry context.** An employer becomes a short descriptor of industry and type — for example `Global fintech company; public`. Placeholders like "Company A" are explicitly forbidden.
- **Acronyms.** KYC, AML, ERP and the like are preserved rather than expanded, because expanding them changes the meaning a specialist reads.

> **Note:** 
The design goal is stated plainly: maximum insight, zero bias. Anonymisation that also removes the substance defeats the purpose — the client cannot assess the candidate and asks for the identified version anyway.

## How are employer names replaced?

With a short descriptor giving industry and type, capped at 12 words. `Stripe` becomes `Global fintech company; public`. Size is only added where it is definitively known rather than inferred — if uncertain, it is omitted entirely.

This keeps the CV assessable. "Five years at a tier-one investment bank" tells a hiring manager what they need; "five years at [REDACTED]" tells them nothing.

## Why must I still review the result?

Because identifying information hides in places pattern-matching does not reach:

- **Project or product names** unique to one employer
- **Internal job titles** that only one company uses
- **Company-specific acronyms** in bullet points
- **Distinctive career paths** — a single named role at a small organisation can be identifying on its own
- **Named awards** tied to one company
- **Acronyms**, which are deliberately preserved and can be employer-specific

Automation catches the structured fields reliably. The long tail is a human judgement call, and the consequence of missing one is a candidate identified in what was supposed to be a blind process.

> **Warning:** 
Before sending an anonymised CV, read it once as a stranger trying to identify the person. Automation reliably handles the structured fields; the long tail below is a human judgement call, and the cost of missing one is a candidate identified in a process that was supposed to be blind.

Before anonymising, it is worth confirming nothing was dropped in extraction — see [checking what was extracted](https://www.remakecv.com/help/formatting-cvs/checking-the-extraction.md).

## Can I anonymise a CV I processed earlier?

Yes. Open it from [CV history](https://www.remakecv.com/help/formatting-cvs/cv-history.md) and anonymise it there. No re-upload and no credit — useful when a client switches to a blind process mid-shortlist.

## What if I only want to remove some details?

Edit the fields directly in the editor. Some clients want the employer visible but the name hidden; that is an edit rather than a full anonymisation.

For anything identifying that anonymisation left behind — a project codename, an internal job title — change the wording in the editor before downloading. Replacing beats deleting: "Led delivery of Project Nightingale" → "Led delivery of a group-wide CRM migration" keeps the achievement legible.

## Frequently asked questions

### Does anonymisation remove the candidate's achievements?

No. Quantified achievements are explicitly preserved. 'Managed a team of 10 and a budget of $500,000' stays intact — only identifying details are removed.

### What happens to employer names?

They are replaced with a neutral descriptor of industry and type, for example 'a global management consultancy' or 'a mid-size SaaS business', so the client can still judge relevance.

### Should I check an anonymised CV before sending it?

Yes, always. Identifying details can hide in places automation does not reach — a project name, a niche job title, a company-specific acronym. Review before sending.