GDPR Compliance

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to all EU/EEA residents’ data, regardless of where your company is located. When you send personal data to AI providers like OpenAI or Anthropic, you’re transferring it to a third-party processor — often outside the EU. Blindfold solves this by tokenizing personal data in the EU region before it reaches any AI provider. The LLM only sees anonymized tokens like <Person_1> — never real names, emails, or addresses.

Data Minimization (Article 5(1)(c))

Requirement: Only process the minimum personal data necessary for the purpose.Risk with AI: Sending full user messages to an LLM means the AI provider processes all personal data in the text — far more than necessary.With Blindfold: PII is replaced with tokens before the AI call. The LLM only receives what it needs to generate a useful response, without real personal data.

Purpose Limitation (Article 5(1)(b))

Requirement: Data collected for one purpose must not be used for another.Risk with AI: AI providers may log, train on, or analyze the personal data you send them.With Blindfold: Since only tokens reach the AI provider, there’s no real personal data to repurpose.

Cross-Border Transfers (Articles 44-49)

Requirement: Personal data transfers outside the EU/EEA require adequate safeguards (Schrems II ruling).Risk with AI: Most LLM providers (OpenAI, Anthropic) process data in the US, triggering Chapter V transfer rules.With Blindfold: Use the EU region (region="eu") — PII is tokenized on EU servers. Only anonymized tokens cross borders, which are no longer personal data under GDPR.

Right to be Forgotten (Article 17)

Requirement: Data subjects can request deletion of their personal data.Risk with AI: Data sent to AI providers may be retained in their logs and training data — deletion is impossible.With Blindfold: No real personal data reaches the AI provider. For your own records, use redact() to permanently remove PII.

Data Processing Agreements (Article 28)

Requirement: Formal agreements must exist between data controllers and processors.With Blindfold: Since tokenized data is no longer personal data, your DPA requirements with AI providers are simplified. Blindfold offers its own DPA — contact hello@blindfold.dev.

GDPR Article	Requirement	Blindfold Feature
Art. 5(1)(c)	Data minimization	Tokenization removes PII before AI calls
Art. 5(1)(b)	Purpose limitation	AI provider never receives real data
Art. 17	Right to erasure	`redact()` permanently removes PII
Art. 25	Data protection by design	SDK-level PII protection in your pipeline
Art. 30	Records of processing	Audit logs track all PII operations
Art. 32	Security of processing	`encrypt()` with AES-256 for storage
Art. 44-49	Cross-border transfers	EU region ensures PII stays in Europe

EU Region + `gdpr_eu` Policy

Region Selection

Use the EU region to ensure personal data is processed on EU-based servers:

from blindfold import Blindfold

client = Blindfold(
    api_key="your-api-key",
    region="eu",  # PII processed in the EU
)

import { Blindfold } from '@blindfold/sdk';

const client = new Blindfold({
  apiKey: 'your-api-key',
  region: 'eu',  // PII processed in the EU
});

What `gdpr_eu` Detects

The gdpr_eu policy covers all GDPR Article 4(1) personal data types:

Entity Type	Examples
Person	Hans Mueller, Marie Dupont
Email Address	hans.mueller@example.de
Phone Number	+49 170 1234567
Address	Berliner Str. 42, 10115 Berlin
IBAN	DE89 3704 0044 0532 0130 00
National ID Number	Country-specific national IDs
Passport Number	C01X00T47
Tax ID	Country-specific tax identifiers
Date of Birth	15/03/1985
Credit Card Number	4532-7562-9102-3456
Bank Account Number	Account numbers
IP Address	192.168.1.100
Health Insurance Number	Insurance identifiers
Medical Condition	Diagnoses, symptoms

Code Examples

Tokenize Before Sending to OpenAI

The most common pattern: protect EU user data before any AI API call.

from blindfold import Blindfold
from openai import OpenAI

blindfold = Blindfold(api_key="your-key", region="eu")
openai = OpenAI(api_key="your-openai-key")

user_message = (
    "Hi, my name is Hans Mueller and I need help with my subscription. "
    "My email is hans.mueller@example.de, IBAN DE89 3704 0044 0532 0130 00."
)

# Step 1: Tokenize PII in the EU
tokenized = blindfold.tokenize(user_message, policy="gdpr_eu")
# → "Hi, my name is <Person_1> and I need help with my subscription.
#    My email is <Email Address_1>, IBAN <IBAN_1>."

# Step 2: Send only tokens to OpenAI
completion = openai.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4o-mini",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": tokenized.text}],
)
ai_response = completion.choices[0].message.content

# Step 3: Restore real values in the response
restored = blindfold.detokenize(ai_response, tokenized.mapping)
print(restored.text)

import { Blindfold } from '@blindfold/sdk';
import OpenAI from 'openai';

const blindfold = new Blindfold({ apiKey: 'your-key', region: 'eu' });
const openai = new OpenAI({ apiKey: 'your-openai-key' });

const userMessage =
  'Hi, my name is Hans Mueller. My email is hans.mueller@example.de, ' +
  'IBAN DE89 3704 0044 0532 0130 00.';

// Step 1: Tokenize PII in the EU
const tokenized = await blindfold.tokenize(userMessage, { policy: 'gdpr_eu' });

// Step 2: Send only tokens to OpenAI
const completion = await openai.chat.completions.create({
  model: 'gpt-4o-mini',
  messages: [{ role: 'user', content: tokenized.text }],
});
const aiResponse = completion.choices[0].message.content;

// Step 3: Restore real values
const restored = await blindfold.detokenize(aiResponse, tokenized.mapping);
console.log(restored.text);

Right to be Forgotten (Article 17)

When a data subject requests deletion, use redact() to permanently remove their PII:

# User requests data deletion under GDPR Art. 17
user_records = fetch_user_records(user_id)

for record in user_records:
    redacted = blindfold.redact(record.content, policy="gdpr_eu")
    update_record(record.id, redacted.text)
    # "Hans Mueller emailed about billing"
    # → "[REDACTED] emailed about billing"

# PII permanently removed — compliant with Right to be Forgotten

Batch Processing Support Tickets

Process multiple EU support tickets in a single API call:

tickets = [
    "Customer Marie Dupont (marie.dupont@example.fr) reports billing issue.",
    "Jan Novak (jan.novak@example.cz) requests data export under GDPR Art. 15.",
    "Sofia Garcia, sofia.garcia@example.es, cannot access her account.",
]

# Tokenize all tickets at once
batch = blindfold.tokenize_batch(tickets, policy="gdpr_eu")

for i, result in enumerate(batch.results):
    print(f"Ticket {i+1}: {result['text']}")
    print(f"  PII removed: {result['entities_count']} entities")

Data Residency

When you use region="eu":

Processing: PII detection runs on EU-based servers at eu-api.blindfold.dev
No cross-border transfer: Personal data never leaves the EU during processing
Tokens are not personal data: The anonymized output (<Person_1>) can safely cross borders
Your API key works globally: No separate keys needed per region

See Regions for full details on data residency.

Audit Trail for DPAs

Every Blindfold API call is logged in your audit trail, providing documentation for Data Processing Agreements:

What was detected: Entity types and counts per request
When: Timestamp of every PII operation
Which policy: The detection policy used
Processing region: EU or US

Export audit logs from the Blindfold Dashboard for DPA compliance reviews.

Cookbook Example

For a complete, runnable GDPR + OpenAI integration, see the cookbook:

GDPR + OpenAI Python Example

Full working example with EU region, gdpr_eu policy, single queries, and batch ticket processing.

Use this checklist when integrating Blindfold for GDPR compliance:

Use the EU region

Set region="eu" in your SDK client to ensure PII is processed in Europe.

Apply the gdpr_eu policy

Use policy="gdpr_eu" on all tokenize/redact/encrypt calls handling EU data.

Tokenize before AI calls

Always call blindfold.tokenize() before sending text to any LLM provider.

Implement Right to be Forgotten

Use blindfold.redact() to permanently remove PII when data subjects request deletion.

Sign a DPA with Blindfold

Contact hello@blindfold.dev to sign a Data Processing Agreement.

Review audit logs regularly

Export audit logs from the dashboard for compliance documentation.

Document your data flows

Record where PII enters your system, how it’s protected, and where anonymized data is sent.

Getting Started

AI Integrations

Compliance

Essentials

Privacy Methods

SDKs & Tools

Guides

EU Region + `gdpr_eu` Policy

Region Selection

What `gdpr_eu` Detects

Code Examples

Tokenize Before Sending to OpenAI

Right to be Forgotten (Article 17)

Batch Processing Support Tickets

Data Residency

Audit Trail for DPAs

Cookbook Example

GDPR + OpenAI Python Example

​Key GDPR Requirements for AI Applications

​How Blindfold Maps to GDPR

​EU Region + gdpr_eu Policy

​Region Selection

​What gdpr_eu Detects

​Code Examples

​Tokenize Before Sending to OpenAI

​Right to be Forgotten (Article 17)

​Batch Processing Support Tickets

​Data Residency

​Audit Trail for DPAs

​Cookbook Example

GDPR + OpenAI Python Example

​GDPR Compliance Checklist

Key GDPR Requirements for AI Applications

How Blindfold Maps to GDPR

EU Region + `gdpr_eu` Policy

Region Selection

What `gdpr_eu` Detects

Code Examples

Tokenize Before Sending to OpenAI

Right to be Forgotten (Article 17)

Batch Processing Support Tickets

Data Residency

Audit Trail for DPAs

Cookbook Example

GDPR Compliance Checklist