What Vinfirm hides on a page, and what it can miss

As each page is read, Vinfirm looks for personal details such as names, addresses, phone numbers and plate numbers, and places a box over each one. The same details are removed from the text read off the page, so the record and its image match.

Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and card numbers are found by pattern as well as by the read. They're covered with a locked box that can't be removed, moved or switched off.

You review every box on the redactions step before saving, and you can add your own. Automatic placement works on typed text in English, the major European languages and Japanese. On handwriting and other alphabets you place the boxes yourself, and the step points out which page still has something showing and what kind of detail it is.

Automatic redaction isn't perfect and can miss things, which is why you review the pages yourself and confirm you have the right to upload them. You don't need to cover anything on the paper before photographing it.

Dollar amounts are never hidden, because cost is part of the history. Neither is the VIN, which ties the record to the car.