Custom PIIConfigure Identification Endpoints

Configure Identification Endpoints

Requirements and contract for the customer-hosted endpoint Protecto calls to detect custom PII in text.

The identification endpoint is the service you host that Protecto calls to detect custom PII in text. Protecto treats this endpoint as the source of truth for identifying the custom tag.

Required contract

RequirementDescription
InputText payload from Protecto
OutputDetected values with character positions
LatencyLow latency recommended — called inline during masking
AuthenticationOptional, via headers configured in the tag

Input format (Protecto sends)

Protecto sends the input text to your endpoint in a structured payload. Your endpoint receives the text and must return all detected occurrences of the custom entity.

Output format (your endpoint returns)

Your endpoint must return the position of each detected value:

[
  {
    "text": "56789",
    "start": 12,
    "end": 17
  }
]
FieldDescription
textThe detected value
startStart character position in the input text
endEnd character position in the input text

Reachability requirements

Your identification endpoint must be:

  • Accessible via HTTPS from Protecto's infrastructure
  • Available with low, consistent latency (it is called synchronously during masking)
  • Returning responses in a timely manner to avoid masking timeouts

If your identification endpoint is down or returns errors, custom PII detection for that tag will fail. Build appropriate availability and error handling into your service.

Authentication

You can optionally include authentication headers for your endpoint in the tag configuration. These are sent with every request Protecto makes to your identification service.

See Create or Update Custom Tags to configure headers.