•TranscribeFast Team

Privacy & Redaction for Transcripts: A Simple Student-Safe Guide

Learn how to protect participants when working with interview transcripts: what to redact, how to pseudonymize consistently, and how to share transcripts safely.

Transcripts can contain sensitive details—names, locations, health information, and stories people didn’t expect to be copied around. This guide gives you a simple way to protect privacy while still doing strong analysis.

What to redact (quick list)

  • Full names, emails, phone numbers
  • Exact addresses or very specific locations
  • Unique identifiers (student ID, employee ID)
  • Highly specific stories that could identify someone

Redaction vs pseudonyms (what’s the difference?)

  • Redaction: remove the sensitive detail (e.g., replace with [REDACTED]).
  • Pseudonyms: replace a real identifier with a fake but consistent one (e.g., “Jordan”).

For analysis, pseudonyms are often better because you can still track a speaker across the transcript.

A simple redaction style guide (be consistent)

Name: Jordan (Participant_01)
School: [SCHOOL]
City: [CITY]
Employer: [WORKPLACE]

Example:
"I work at [WORKPLACE] in [CITY]."

Safe sharing checklist

  • Share only with people on the project (not public links).
  • Prefer PDF for “final” sharing to reduce accidental edits.
  • Remove identifying details before sending transcripts to classmates.
  • Store files in one place; avoid “final_final_v3” copies everywhere.

Pro tip: redact after you collect your key quotes

Do a quick first pass to collect quotes with timestamps for your analysis. Then do a privacy pass for any version you plan to share or submit.

Common mistakes

  • Redacting inconsistently (same person gets 3 different names).
  • Leaving unique details that identify someone even without a name.
  • Sharing raw transcripts in group chats or public links.