Country pack
South Africa PII detection: Identity number
Short answer
Maskflare's South Africa pack has 4 detectors. 1 validates a check digit or letter, 1 tests layout or an embedded date, 2 match on pattern alone.
What the South Africa pack covers
The South Africa pack holds 4 detectors: Bank account number, Identity number, Phone number and Postal code. 1 of them recomputes a check digit or letter, 1 tests layout or an embedded date only, 2 are pattern-only, and 2 wait for a keyword before they match.
| Detector | Category | Validation | Valid example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank account number | bank account number (IBAN) | Pattern only | 62123456789 |
| Identity number | national ID number | Checksum | 8001015009087 |
| Phone number | phone number | Layout rules | +27 21 123 4567 |
| Postal code | postal code | Pattern only | 8001 |
Every South Africa detector in detail
Bank account number
A bank account identifier. Validation: the pattern only, with no checksum or structural validator. It needs one of 6 keywords within 48 characters before the value, such as a/c, account no, account number, acct. Valid example: 62123456789.
Identity number
A national identity number. Validation: an embedded birth date, a citizenship digit of 0 to 2 and a Luhn check. A run of digits with no separator is judged by words nearby; the detector's own keywords include id, id no, id number, identity number. Valid example: 8001015009087; the same shape that fails is 8001015009080.
Phone number
A telephone number in the national format. Validation: between 7 and 15 digits, the range an international number can have. Valid example: +27 21 123 4567.
Postal code
A postal code, which identifies a place rather than a person on its own. Validation: the pattern only, with no checksum or structural validator. It needs one of 6 keywords within 48 characters before the value, such as post code, postal code, postcode, zip. Valid example: 8001.
Local-language context words for South Africa
These are the words in the catalogue that confirm a value as belonging to this country's detector. Shared English words such as ID number or tax id are left out here because many packs use them; a word below points at this pack even when other packs are on.
- Bank account number:
a/c,account no,account number,acct,bank account,rekeningnommer - Identity number:
id,id no,id number,identity number,national id,personal id,personal number,rsa id - Postal code:
post code,postal code,postcode,zip,zip code,zipcode
How Maskflare masks South Africa identifiers
Detections are replaced with a token such as mf_mask_d7e0 before the request goes to the AI provider, and with response restoration turned on the real value is put back in the answer. The other actions are redact, partial, hash, format-preserving encryption, generalize, alert and block.
- Protect now, Finance - Protect now, Healthcare and Developer: mask (a reversible token) when South Africa is a primary country.
- Monitor first: alert (counted, forwarded unchanged) when South Africa is a primary country.
None of the compliance profiles (HIPAA Safe Harbor, GDPR (EU/EEA), UK GDPR, PCI DSS v4.0, US PII (CCPA/CPRA) and Swiss nDSG health data) includes the South Africa pack. Its detectors run when South Africa is chosen as a primary country or the pack is enabled directly.
Limits worth knowing
- A passing checksum shows that a value is well formed, not that it was issued to a real person. The examples on this page pass for that reason and are not real.
- 2 of the 4 detectors here match on pattern alone (Bank account number and Postal code), so they can match text that merely has the same shape.
- Detectors read the text of the request. A value inside an image is found only after OCR, and a value split across lines is not one match.
- Names, addresses and free-text details are handled by other packs. This page is limited to the South Africa identifiers.
Frequently asked questions
What does Maskflare detect for South Africa?
4 detectors: Bank account number, Identity number, Phone number and Postal code.
Are South Africa identifiers masked by default?
They are masked when South Africa is chosen as a primary country (the default Protect now template uses the action mask), or when the pack is turned on directly. A country pack is not on for organisations that did not choose the country.
Which South Africa identifiers have a checksum?
Identity number.
Do the South Africa detectors need keywords?
2 of them do: Bank account number and Postal code.
Rules on this page describe what Maskflare's detectors and validators check. They are read from the detection catalogue and are not the specification of the body that issues the identifier. Examples are synthetic.