Anonymise the personal details of Users

Steps to anonymise personal data for Users

1 Understand how the anonymise tool works
2 Anonymise Users
3 FAQs

Related Help Guide Pages

Related Resources

https://www.accessplanit.com/en-gb/webinars/securing-data-part-2-user-archiving-and-anonymisation

If you no longer need to store the personal information of some Users in your platform, anonymise their details to clear their personal information and stop them from being identifiable.

Respect user privacy with GDPR-friendly practices! When you no longer need to store the personal information for one or many Users, you can anonymise their user information to comply with your internal data policies and safeguard the Users' sensitive data.

The anonymisation tool masks personal details without deleting the User, which means that your historical logs, delegate records, and financial data are not affected, and you can continue to rely on this information long after you have removed the personal information from your platform!

Follow this page to learn the steps to anonymise Users in your platform.

Understand how the anonymise tool works

When you anonymise a User, the following information is updated:

Information	How is it updated
Forenames	Anonymised
Surname	Anonymised
Middle Names	Anonymised
Title	Removed
External ID	Removed
Email Address	Anonymised
Address	Anonymised
Town	Removed
County, Country, Postcode	Removed
Date of Birth	Removed
Ethnicity	Removed
Fax	Removed
Mobile	Removed
NI Number	Removed
Job Title	Removed
Gender	Removed
Sexual Orientation	Removed
Marital Status	Removed

In addition to the above:

Audit logs relating to the User are removed
Copies of the Communications sent to the user are updated to be blank
The User's Status is set to ‘Inactive’, unless they already have a status of ‘Inactive’ or ‘Deleted’

The Anonymise tool does not:

Update/delete Notes, Attributes, Documents, and Tasks mapped to the User.
Affect email subscriptions as these are mapped on the User's email address, not the User's account.
Remove Custom Field values assigned to the User.

Here is an example User, following anonymisation:

Anonymise Users

This step will show you how to find your Users, and anonymise their data

Open Users from your main navigation menu on the left
This will open the Users DataGrid
Find the Users you wish to permanently remove personal data for by applying filters and/or searching the Users DataGrid
Use the checkbox to the left of the record to select the Users you wish to anonymise

Please Note

This process is permanent and cannot be reversed, so ensure the records selected are the Users whose data needs to be removed

Click the Mass actions drop-down button and select anonymise
A pop-up will then appear as a final check as this process is not reversible
Click ‘Yes’ and your selected Users will then be anonymised and their status set to ‘Inactive’

FAQs

Is the Anonymise tool truly anonymising data under GDPR?

Not in the strict legal sense. The Anonymise tool removes or obscures personal identifiers so that individuals can no longer be identified within the accessplanit platform. However, because some underlying references (e.g. their User ID) may still exist, this process is more accurately described as pseudonymisation under GDPR. In other words, while the data is no longer identifiable to platform users, it may not meet the GDPR definition of full, irreversible anonymisation.

What else should I check after I anonymise a User’s data?

The tool removes or replaces personally identifiable information such as names, email addresses, and contact details from standard fields. You should check through the User’s record to remove any additional information that may be stored in Custom Fields, and Attributes.

Does anonymisation affect reports or statistics?

No. Reports and statistics remain accurate, as anonymisation only impacts identifiable user information. Aggregated data (like total bookings or attendance rates) is not affected.