Anonymisation replaces a person's identifying details with placeholders and blocks their access. The profile record stays, so your reports, totals and academic records remain intact.
How to anonymise profiles
Many profiles at once
Open a Shared Segment list.
Filter for the profiles past your retention period. Use a date field with the is before condition and enter the date two years ago. You can save the filter as a segment to reuse it next time.
Select the profiles, or select all results.
From the bulk actions, choose Delete profiles > Anonymize.
Check the summary. It shows how many profiles match and how many will be processed.
Confirm. Anonymisation runs in the background, and you receive an email when it has finished.
Only prospects, applicants, students, alumni and contacts are processed. Staff profiles are always left unchanged.
A single profile
Open the profile.
Go to Advanced > Delete > Anonymize from the profile actions.
Confirm.
A profile that is already anonymised is skipped, so running the action again is safe.
What anonymisation changes
These fields are replaced on the profile and on the person's applications, form submissions and event responses:
Field type | Replaced with |
Single-line text (for example first name, last name) | Deleted [field name] |
A placeholder address ending in @example.com | |
Postal address | Deleted address |
Phone number | Empty |
The person is also affected in these ways:
They can no longer log in. Their password is removed and any open session ends.
Their tags are removed.
They are unsubscribed from all communications: email, SMS, phone and post.
Their email address is replaced in campaign reports.
What remains after anonymisation
The following data is kept. Review it against your retention policy before you rely on anonymisation alone.
The profile record. It stays in place, marked as anonymised, so reports and totals remain correct.
Academic records. Registrations, transcripts and grades are kept.
Other field types. Dates (for example date of birth), dropdowns and checkboxes (for example nationality or gender), long-text fields, numbers and uploaded files keep their values. If any of these hold personal data you must remove, contact support before you run anonymisation.
Records outside the profile. Notes, emails already sent and other records linked to the person are not changed.
An encrypted copy of the replaced values. Full Fabric keeps the original values in encrypted form, so they can be restored in exceptional cases. If your policy requires permanent, irreversible erasure, contact support to discuss your options.
Test before you run it on real data
Anonymisation cannot be undone from the interface, so test it on a sandbox or on test profiles first.
Create a test profile. Fill in a name, an email, a postal address, a phone number and a date of birth.
Give the profile an application and a form submission.
Anonymise the profile.
Open the profile and its application. Check that the name, email, address and phone number show placeholders, and that the date of birth is unchanged.
Try to log in as that person. The login should fail.
Run the bulk action on a small filtered group. Compare the count in the summary with the count in the completion email.
Open a few of those profiles and check them as in step 4.
FAQ
Can Full Fabric anonymise profiles automatically after two years? No. Run the bulk action on a regular schedule using a saved segment.
Can staff profiles be anonymised? No. Staff profiles are excluded from both single and bulk anonymisation.
What happens if I anonymise a profile twice? Nothing. Profiles that are already anonymised are skipped.
Will my reports change? Counts and totals stay the same, because the profile record remains. Reports that show names or contact details will show the placeholders.
Can I undo an anonymisation? Not from the interface. Contact support if a profile was anonymised by mistake.
What is the difference between anonymising and scrubbing a profile? Scrubbing keeps the first name, last name, email and required fields, and clears every other field. It also removes the person from their classes. Anonymising replaces the identifying fields listed above and keeps the rest.