How is personal data protected during the extraction process?

Protecting personal data during document extraction generally comes down to a few concrete practices, and it's worth understanding these when evaluating any vendor, since the sensitivity of the data involved (names, dates of birth, document numbers, photographs) makes this a genuinely important consideration rather than a checkbox concern.

On-device processing is one of the more significant protections available. When extraction happens entirely on a user's own phone or device, the sensitive document image and extracted data never need to leave that device unless the business explicitly chooses to transmit the final structured result elsewhere.

This meaningfully reduces the exposure surface compared to sending raw document images to an external server for processing.

Encryption matters both in transit and at rest wherever data does move or get stored. Data transmitted from a device to a server (in cloud-based or hybrid processing models) should be encrypted using standard protocols like TLS, and any data stored afterward, even temporarily, should be encrypted at rest rather than kept as plain, readable files.

Data minimization and retention policies are equally important. A well-designed system should only retain document images and extracted data for as long as genuinely necessary for the specific business purpose, deleting or anonymizing it afterward rather than accumulating an indefinite archive of sensitive personal documents.

Field masking, where certain sensitive fields (like a national ID number) can be partially or fully redacted in stored records or displayed results, adds another layer of protection for use cases where the full field isn't actually needed downstream.

Compliance with relevant regulations, like GDPR in the European context, generally requires all of the above as baseline practice, plus clear documentation of what data is collected, how long it's retained, and what legal basis justifies its processing.

Given the sensitivity of the data involved, it's reasonable for any business evaluating a document scanning vendor to ask specifically about data retention periods, encryption practices, whether processing happens on-device or in the cloud, and what compliance certifications the vendor holds, rather than assuming these details are handled adequately without confirmation.

ScanDoc processes document data with encryption in transit and at rest, offers on-device processing options to minimize data exposure, and supports field masking for sensitive data elements, aiming to give businesses in regulated industries the privacy safeguards their own compliance obligations require.