Does PrivSweep upload my files?

No. Everything runs on your own computer and nothing you scan is uploaded. A local AI model downloads once on first run, after which the tool works fully offline.

How do I get PrivSweep?

Enter your email on Practical Legal Tech and the download links for Windows, macOS, and Linux arrive in a welcome message.

What are PrivSweep limits?

It reduces risk; it does not certify a file clean. Detection is best-effort, the sanitize feature is a text-level de-identifier rather than a court-ready redactor, and it does not OCR scanned images.

Practical Legal Tech · From Print to Pixels

Real-world tech, written by the lawyer who runs it.

Q: What is PrivSweep?

PrivSweep is a free, local privacy pre-flight tool. It scans a file or folder for privileged content, client PII, and confidential metadata before you send it somewhere public, such as an AI chatbot, a public code repository, or outbound email.

Practical Legal Tech is a free library of guides, Claude skills, and tools, designed, built, and battle-tested in a working law practice. Tips, tricks and tools to make law fun again, spanning SSH, Docker, GitHub, MCP servers, and AI workflows. It comes from Patrick Nolan, an attorney who has spent 40 years writing code, from Applesoft Basic in a printshop to Java and Python across publishing companies and a law practice. Everything is tested before it lands here, and the tools page stays free.

The toolbox

Every guide and tech tip on this page is free to read. Categories include:

AI & Claude — shared AI client session memory, session memory for Claude, building an MCP server, converting Word macros into forms and templates, and ready-to-load Claude skills for the OpenAI Image API and the MyCase API.
Infrastructure — SSH on Windows and Linux, SCP file transfer, what Docker is, cron jobs, and receiving webhooks.
GitHub — what GitHub and repositories are, account setup, GitHub ethics for lawyers (ABA Rules 1.1, 1.6, 5.3 and Formal Opinion 512), and Git rollback.
Fundamentals — reading log files, API keys and safe storage, .env files, and the browser developer console.

PrivSweep — the unlockable tool

One tool is kept off the public page. PrivSweep is the check you run before you hit send: a python-based local-AI tool that scans any file or folder and flags privileged content, client PII, and confidential metadata before it reaches an AI prompt, a public repo, or an outbound email. It:

Flags names, SSNs, and account & matter identifiers
Reads document metadata you forgot was there
Runs locally — nothing leaves your machine

Leave an email on the live page to unlock it and get a heads-up when new tools ship.

Membership

From launch forward, two plans cover every downloadable skill and tech tip. Practical runs $12.15–$17.91/mo and includes every skill and tech tip plus the ready-to-run playbook. Founders runs $18.36–$27.08/mo and adds private video walkthroughs and the complete, working code — not the recipe, the kitchen. Every price is a date in American self-government (1791, the Bill of Rights; 1787, the Constitution signed). The free tools page stays free regardless.

About

Practical Legal Tech is the workbench behind the practice: the guides, skills, and hard-won fixes used to get real work done, written up along the way. It’s the companion to the Practical Legal Tech channel — same idea, longer form — published through Chariton Media.

FAQ

Is it really free?

Yes. Every guide and tech tip in the public toolbox is free to read, and the free tools page stays free.

Is this legal advice?

No. Everything here is educational only. It is not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created.

Who builds this?

A practicing attorney who builds and runs these tools, then hands them over. Everything is tested in a live practice first. Published through Chariton Media.

What is PrivSweep?

A python-based local-AI tool that scans files and folders for privileged content, client PII, and confidential metadata before anything is sent to an AI, pushed to a repo, or emailed out. It runs locally. Unlock it with your email on the live page.

What do memberships cost?

Practical is $12.15–$17.91/mo; Founders is $18.36–$27.08/mo. Memberships open at launch — leave your email to be first in.