diff --git a/public/css/style.css b/public/css/style.css
index 094f65f..ae0b7f6 100644
--- a/public/css/style.css
+++ b/public/css/style.css
@@ -203,6 +203,13 @@ a:hover {
   font-size: 45%;
 }
 
+.warning-feedback {
+  width: 100%;
+  margin-top: 0.25rem;
+  font-size: 80%;
+  color: #dc8e35;
+}
+
 .dropdown-item:focus,
 .dropdown-item:hover {
   background-color: var(--hover-bg-color);
diff --git a/public/partials/anonymize.htm b/public/partials/anonymize.htm
index f6488ff..d1412a5 100644
--- a/public/partials/anonymize.htm
+++ b/public/partials/anonymize.htm
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@
               >
               <div
                 class="invalid-feedback"
-                ng-show="anonymize.commit.$error.pattern"
+                ng-show="anonymize.commit.$error.pattern || anonymize.commit.$error.required"
               >
                 The commit SHA is not valid. It should respect this pattern
                 [a-fA-Z0-9]{6,}.
@@ -236,14 +236,22 @@
                 ng-model-options="{ debounce: 250 }"
                 ng-class="{'is-invalid': anonymize.terms.$invalid}"
               ></textarea>
-              <small id="termsHelp" class="form-text text-muted"
-                >One term per line. Each term will be replaced by XXX.</small
+              <small id="termsHelp" class="form-text text-muted">
+                One term per line. A term is a RegEx! Each term will be replaced
+                by {{site_options.ANONYMIZATION_MASK}}-[Line Number].
+              </small>
+              <div
+                class="warning-feedback"
+                ng-show="anonymize.terms.$error.regex"
               >
+                We identify that you are using some regex characters, if it was
+                not on purpose, please escape them.
+              </div>
               <div
                 class="invalid-feedback"
                 ng-show="anonymize.terms.$error.format"
               >
-                Terms are in an invalid format
+                Terms are in an invalid format.
               </div>
             </div>
 
@@ -332,7 +340,7 @@
                         <label class="form-check-label" for="link"
                           >Keep links</label
                         >
-                        <small id="termsHelp" class="form-text text-muted"
+                        <small id="linkHelp" class="form-text text-muted"
                           >Keep or remove all the links.</small
                         >
                       </div>
@@ -347,7 +355,7 @@
                         <label class="form-check-label" for="image"
                           >Display images</label
                         >
-                        <small id="termsHelp" class="form-text text-muted"
+                        <small id="imageHelp" class="form-text text-muted"
                           >Images are not anonymized</small
                         >
                       </div>
@@ -362,7 +370,7 @@
                         <label class="form-check-label" for="pdf"
                           >Display PDFs</label
                         >
-                        <small id="termsHelp" class="form-text text-muted"
+                        <small id="pdfHelp" class="form-text text-muted"
                           >PDF are not anonymized</small
                         >
                       </div>
@@ -415,7 +423,7 @@
                         <label class="form-check-label" for="page"
                           >Github page</label
                         >
-                        <small id="termsHelp" class="form-text text-muted"
+                        <small id="pageHelp" class="form-text text-muted"
                           >Enable anonymized Github pages. It currently only
                           supported for Github pages that are defined in the
                           same branch. It will be available at
diff --git a/public/script/app.js b/public/script/app.js
index 23d6f25..3e3406e 100644
--- a/public/script/app.js
+++ b/public/script/app.js
@@ -1231,6 +1231,14 @@ angular
       }
 
       function anonymize() {
+        $scope.anonymize.terms.$setValidity("regex", true);
+        // check if string has regex characters
+        if (
+          $scope.terms &&
+          $scope.terms.match(/[-[\]{}()*+?.,\\^$|#\s]/g)
+        ) {
+          $scope.anonymize.terms.$setValidity("regex", false);
+        }
         const urlRegex =
           /<?\b((https?|ftp|file):\/\/)[-A-Za-z0-9+&@#/%?=~_|!:,.;]+[-A-Za-z0-9+&@#/%=~_|]\b\/?>?/g;
         let content = $scope.readme;
@@ -1304,7 +1312,7 @@ angular
         $scope.anonymize.repoUrl.$setValidity("access", true);
         $scope.anonymize.conference.$setValidity("activated", true);
         $scope.anonymize.terms.$setValidity("format", true);
-        $scope.anonymize.terms.$setValidity("format", true);
+        $scope.anonymize.terms.$setValidity("regex", true);
       }
 
       function displayErrorMessage(message) {