Pattern mode: bulk redaction for recurring patterns

If you have 200 documents where BSNs, email addresses or IBANs need to be removed throughout, clicking through each one manually is a nightmare. Pattern mode automates it.

Pattern-based redaction automatically detects patterns such as phone numbers, email addresses, BSN, IBAN, dates — and redacts them without you having to click every single match by hand.

Typical patterns for SMBs

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• BSN: 9 digits, with or without hyphens. Recognising BSNs.
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• IBAN: NL + 2 digits + 4 letters + 10 digits.
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• Email addresses: standard regex.
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• Phone numbers: Dutch format (+31... or 06... or 010...).
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• Postcodes: 4 digits + 2 letters.
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• Dates: various formats.
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• Credit card numbers: groups of 4 or 16 digits with Luhn check.
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• Personal names: trickier — requires statistical analysis and named-entity recognition.
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Pitfalls

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• False positives: an invoice number can look like a BSN. Always check your matches.
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• False negatives: a pattern with spaces ("123 456 789") won't always match. Test with real examples.
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• Context: an email address in a header like "From: noreply@company.nl" may be fine to keep, whereas a customer email in the body should be redacted.
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How to approach it

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1. Define your patterns or choose from a preset.
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2. The tool shows a preview: what matches have been found?
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3. Validate on a sample of 10 documents.
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4. Apply to the full batch.
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5. Spot-check the results.
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6. Audit log: which patterns affected which documents (see audit trail).
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Tools

Adobe Acrobat Pro supports this. Our PDF Redact Business plan delivers pattern mode with Dutch defaults (BSN, IBAN, NL phone format) and audit logging for GDPR compliance.

See also: redaction guide, audit trail.