Frequently asked questions

Yes. Detection, masking options, review, leak scan, exports and restore work with no account and no e-mail address. The AI features, case-file mode, firm profiles and the pseudonymisation certificate are free as well: they only require a verified e-mail address.

No. They are processed in your browser, AI features included. No document, extracted text or detected data is sent. You can check this with your browser's Network panel or by going offline: see Check it yourself.

Only to unlock the AI features, case-file mode, firm profiles and the certificate. Avlex sends you a confirmation link. Once the address is confirmed, your browser receives a personal licence valid for 12 months, renewable by confirming again. The consent boxes for communications are optional and never pre-ticked; unlocking does not depend on them. See Unlock.

Yes, that is its main use. Pseudonymise the document, copy the result for the AI, then paste the AI's answer on the Restore page to put the original values back. The tool does not connect to any AI: you copy and paste. The OVB and AVOCATS.BE guidelines also ask you to review the AI tool's terms and to check its answer.

It holds the link between each token, for example [PERSON_1], and the original value. It is encrypted with your passphrase (AES-GCM, 256-bit) and saved on your device. It lets you put the original values back into the AI's answer. It is never sent.

Restoring becomes impossible. We have no copy of the key or the passphrase, and we cannot rebuild them. Keep them somewhere safe, separate from the pseudonymised text.

• Input: pasted text, TXT, Markdown, HTML, DOCX and PDF with a text layer. Scanned PDFs and images (PNG, JPG, TIFF, WebP) are read with OCR, an unlocked feature. An old DOC file must first be saved as DOCX.
• Output: copy, TXT, Markdown, HTML, DOCX (layout kept if the original is a DOCX), text PDF and redacted PDF.
• Limit: 50 MB or 300 pages per file.

A scanned PDF or a photo holds only an image, not text. The tool extracts the text with optical character recognition (OCR), on your device, in French, Dutch, German and English. This feature is unlocked by verifying your e-mail address. Review with particular care: OCR can misread a name or a number, and a misread item can escape detection.

• Belgian identifiers validated by their check digits: national register number (including bis numbers), identity card number, enterprise and VAT number, establishment unit number, IBAN and old account number, structured payment reference (OGM).
• Other identifiers: passports and residence cards, licence plates, court docket numbers, public prosecutor's file numbers, Immigration Office and Council for Alien Law Litigation numbers, INAMI/RIZIV and health insurance fund numbers.
• Contact details: addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, URLs and IP addresses.
• People, organisations, places, dates, amounts and sensitive data (health, religion, criminal offences, etc.: GDPR, Articles 9 and 10).
• Your own lists of names or terms.

Once your e-mail address is verified, an AI model running on your device also finds names, places and organisations that the rules miss. No detection is exhaustive: review remains mandatory.

Not in pseudonymisation mode. As long as a restore key exists, the text is pseudonymised: for you, it remains personal data under the GDPR (EDPB, Guidelines 01/2025). Anonymisation mode produces no key and uses only irreversible replacements. Even then, a document is anonymous only if no one can identify the person any more, including through the context. That judgement is yours; the re-identification risk analysis (an unlocked feature) helps you make it.

Yes, as an aid. Use anonymisation mode, which produces no key, and the publication preset. Watch for indirect details: dates, places, professions, notable facts. Review the whole text before publishing: the decision to publish and the content published are your responsibility.

Avlex, legal AI for Belgian lawyers. The publisher is Avlex Belgium SRL, Boulevard de l'Empereur 10, 1000 Bruxelles, enterprise number 1036.582.778. The tool is free and independent: it requires no account and does not redirect you to the Avlex platform. See About.

No. The site sets no cookies and loads no trackers. It uses your browser's storage only for what you ask for: your licence, your display preferences, case-file mode and the AI model files. See Cookies.

At any time, in three ways: on the Preferences page, from the browser in which you unlocked the tool; through the unsubscribe link in every e-mail; or by writing to legal@avlex.be. Withdrawing has no effect on your licence.

Yes, once the page has loaded: processing needs no network. Some parts of the code are only loaded the first time you use a format, so process a first document while online. Unlocking and the first download of the AI files need a connection. An installable offline version is not yet available.