Sanitised

Sanitised is the past tense and past participle of the verb sanitise, the British English form of sanitize. It generally refers to making something clean or safe by removing dirt, contaminants, or potential hazards. In public health and hygiene contexts, items or environments described as sanitised have undergone processes intended to reduce the risk of infection, contamination, or disease, such as sanitised water, equipment, or facilities.

In data handling and information security, sanitised data means that sensitive information has been removed or obscured so it cannot be readily reidentified. Data sanitisation also covers methods that render data unrecoverable, such as secure deletion or destruction of storage media. In publishing and journalism, sanitised content refers to material that has been edited to remove offensive language, graphic details, or private information to make it suitable for a broader audience.

In computing, input sanitisation is a specific practice of cleansing user input to prevent security vulnerabilities, such as injection attacks, by removing or neutralising potentially harmful data. The term can also be used more loosely in political or organizational contexts to describe information or processes that have been softened or sanitised to appear more palatable or acceptable.

Etymology and usage notes: sanitise derives from sanitational concepts relating to health and cleanliness; the spelling sanitised is common in British English, while American English uses sanitized. Related terms include sanitisation (noun) and sanitation (public health discipline).