BLOG · MULTILINGUAL

Why Local-Language PII Detection Is More Than Translation

PII detection changes across scripts, native digits, country formats, contextual labels and code-switched text. A robust local-language system therefore combines language packs with country profiles and validators.

Scripts

Arabic, Devanagari, Bengali, Tamil, Gurmukhi, Han, Hangul, Cyrillic, Greek and Thai require script-aware processing.

Native Digits

Unicode digits can represent the same identifier differently; normalization helps recognition without rewriting the original output text.

Context

Words such as “CNIC”, local equivalents of “name/address”, and industry labels can disambiguate otherwise-generic numbers.

Country Formats

A local national/tax/health identifier cannot be modeled as “just a long number”.

Code Switching

Real customer text mixes English product words with local languages; multiple packs may need to be active.

Testing

Each language and identifier family should be benchmarked with native/realistic test cases rather than inferred from marketing counts alone.