Core Concepts
The foundational ideas behind Protecto — tokenization, masking, policies, and permissions. Understanding these concepts helps you design integrations correctly and predict behavior.
Understanding these concepts will help you design integrations correctly, anticipate behavior, and use the right tools for each use case.
Tokenization Basics
What tokenization is, why tokens are deterministic, and how the token lifecycle works.
Detection vs Masking
Why these are two separate steps, and when each applies.
Auto-Detect and Mask
The default mode for free-form text — how it works and when to use it.
Tokens vs Formats
Two different masking strategies — when to replace a value vs preserve its structure.
Entity Tags
How Protecto preserves semantic meaning by wrapping masked values in typed tags.
Unmasking
Why unmasking is always explicit, how it's governed, and what it returns.
Policies
The rulebook that governs detection, masking, reversibility, and analysis.
Anonymization vs Pseudonymization
The structural difference between irreversible and reversible masking.
Namespaces & Permissions
Logical boundaries and access controls for sensitive operations.
Custom PII
How to teach Protecto to recognize your own internal identifiers.
Toxicity Detection
Additive safety signals for AI and GenAI workflows.
Sync vs Async Processing
When to use real-time APIs vs background batch processing.
Last updated 3 weeks ago
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