Protection of personally identifiable information

In Synerise, you can use a feature that protects personally identifiable information (PII), letting you designate which workspace users and API keys can access PII. By default, the ID and UUID data are considered PII, but you can flag other attributes and event parameters as PII.

This system lets users without PII access work with the data while ensuring that they cannot view the sensitive information, striking a balance between data usability and protection of personal information.

What counts as PII

By default, only the ID and UUID profile attributes are considered PII, but they are not encrypted - only masked. Additionally, users with specific permissions can mark any profile attribute or event parameter as PII. It’s important to note that once a parameter is marked as PII, it applies to all relevant events.

Impact on tracking

Identification of profiles in workspaces with PII protection enabled is only possible in the following ways:

Web tracking with JS SDK: JWT authentication must be enabled. For example, when submitting a form, the JavaScript SDK will send a form.submit event, but the request will be rejected without a JWT token by the backend.
Mobile app integration: The client key in a mobile app must have permissions to access PII data.
Integration through API: Authorization must be performed with an API key that has permissions to access PII data.

Enabling the PII protection

When creating a workspace, you must specify whether it will support PII protection. Enabling PII protection must occur before loading event and profile data, as encryption cannot be applied retroactively.

Enabling PII protection is also possible for older workspaces with existing data, however, the data won’t be encrypted retroactively.

By default, PII protection is disabled. The process for enabling this feature is the same for both new and existing workspaces. Below you can find a short overview of the process.

Stage	Description or Result
Request enabling access to PII Protection	Request access to settings that allow granting PII data access to user roles, API keys, and marking attributes and event parameters as PII.
Grant or restrict access to PII data	After confirmation, in the Synerise platform, update permissions for API keys and user roles, and mark sensitive attributes and event parameters. WARNING: Changes are not yet applied; data is not protected yet.
Start enforcing PII protection	Synerise enforces the settings defined in “Grant or restrict access to PII data” stage, activating PII protection.

Request enabling access to PII protection

Make a request for enabling access to the PII protection feature to Synerise Support. Enabling the PII protection of the workspace causes:

Access to the PII protection status section under this link: https://app.synerise.com/settings/pii
This section shows the state of the PII protection option.

PII protection status section
Appearance of the PII-related user permissions: PII settings
Setting these permissions to:
- Read: allows users to set PII access level for API keys and user roles.
- Update and Create: allows users to mark profile attributes and event parameters as PII.
  
  List of permissions in Settings > Roles that can be accessed by clicking on a role and viewing the Permission section.

Important: The data is not protected yet. Now you have been granted access to the PII settings. The next step is to grant or restrict access to PII data. These changes will take effect and become live after Synerise receives and processes your request to execute PII protection.

Grant or restrict access to PII data

After enabling access to the PII protection feature (the status is reflected in https://app.synerise.com/settings/pii through the PII access configuration toggle), perform the following actions:

Enable access to PII data for user roles

Update user roles by granting them access to PII data. You can also grant access to PII data to the predefined Synerise roles.

To view the scope of actions available to users with roles that have Full access to PII data, see the table in the “Impact on user access and actions” section.

The PII setting applies exclusively to the access rights associated with each specific role. For example, if a user holds two roles:

Role A, which grants access to Behavioral Data Hub and has PII access
Role B, which grants access to Decision Hub and doesn’t have PII access

The user will have full access to PII data within Behavioral Data Hub, while having no access to PII data within Decision Hub.

Important: When a new role is assigned to a user, they must refresh the page for the changes to take effect. If an existing role assigned to a user is updated, no action is required - the new settings will be applied automatically.

Go to Settings > Roles.
On the role list, find the role for whom you want to enable access to PII data.
Click > Edit.
On the PII access section, click Define.
Click Full access to PII data.
The PII access section available while defining the settings of a role
Confirm by clicking Apply.

Enable access to PII data for API keys

Update existing API keys to grant them permissions for operations involving PII data.

Important: There is no need to refresh the JWT for API keys after updating them. The token will automatically reflect the new settings after up to 5 minutes.

Go to Settings > API keys.
To add access to an existing key, open the details of the key to which you want to grant the access.
On the PII access section, click Define.
Click Full access to PII data.

The PII access section available while defining the settings of an API key

Mark profile attributes as PII

Label specific profile attributes as PII to ensure their value is accessible only for users who have access to PII data.

Important: Completing this procedure generates profile.updated events.

Go to Data Modeling Hub > Profile attributes.
On the list of attributes, open the details of the attribute which you want to mark as PII.
In the PII protection section, click Define.
Enable the This attribute is personal data option.
Result: A profile.updated event is generated for all profiles that have this attribute assigned. This event will include the encrypted value of the attribute.

The PII protection section; it's accessible in Behavioral Data Hub > Profile attributes, in the details of a profile attribute

Mark event parameters as PII

Label specific event parameters as PII to ensure their value is accessible only for users who have access to PII data.

Go to Data Modeling Hub > Event parameters.
On the list of event parameters, open the details of the parameter which you want to mark as PII.
In the PII protection section, click Define.
Enable the This parameter contains personal data option.

The PII protection section; it's accessible in Data Modeling Hub > Event parameters, in the details of an event parameter

Start enforcing PII protection

After updating roles for workspace users and API keys, as well as marking profile attributes and event parameters as PII, submit a request to Synerise support to apply the PII settings you defined in the previous steps. Once your request is processed:

the PII access execution toggle in https://app.synerise.com/settings/pii is enabled.
workspace user roles and API keys with PII permissions will become active.
profile attributes and event parameters marked as PII are accessible only for users with full access to PII.

Impact on user access and actions

Note: Apart from PII itself, you also need to have the right permissions. For example, you can have full access to PII data, but without the READ permission for Behavioral Data Hub you won’t see anything, similarly, all campaigns, and so on.

Because marking attributes and event parameters as PII causes their values to be encrypted, it’s important to understand the differences in what a user can do with full access to PII data versus no access to PII data. Below is a comparison of feature access and actions for each option.

	Full Access to PII data	No Access to PII data
Profile data access	Can view regular profiles and test profiles	Can view only test profiles
Updating profile information	Can update profile information and create new profiles	Can’t update profile information, can’t create new profiles
Importing profiles, transactions, and events	Can import profiles, transactions, and events	Cannot import profiles, transactions, and events
Campaigns and templates	Can create templates and campaigns, and preview the output of Jinjava and dynamic attributes such as aggregates and expressions	Can build templates and campaigns without exposing real data (they can preview campaigns in the context of test profiles)
Sending messages	- Can send messages/campaigns to any audience and preview real contact data; - When defining audience conditions, PII attributes and event parameters can be used only with the Equal operator to check if a PII-marked attribute or parameter is `null`, `true`, or `false` and compare their value to a specific value—even ignoring differences in capitalization and spaces	- Can send messages and campaigns to any audience, but will not see real contact data, - When defining audience conditions, PII attributes and event parameters can be used only with the Equal operator to check if a PII-marked attribute or parameter is null or not null
Sending test messages	Can send test campaigns to any recipient (profiles, test profiles, recipients who are not available in Behavioral Data Hub > Profiles)	Can send test campaign only to test profiles; sending tests to custom email or phone number (not available in Profiles) is impossible.
Creating analyses	Attributes and event parameters marked as PII can only be used in specific ways within analyses: - You can test whether a PII-marked attribute or parameter is `null`, `true`, or `false` (analyses with Equal operator). - You can compare a PII attribute or parameter’s value using the Equal operator to a specific value—even ignoring differences in capitalization and spaces. - You cannot perform function operations on PII-marked attributes or parameters, nor use them inside expressions or aggregated calculations. For example, you cannot include a PII attribute as a value within an expression or aggregate.	Attributes and event parameters marked as PII can only be used in specific ways within analyses: - You can test whether a PII-marked attribute or parameter is null or not null (analyses with Equal operator). - You cannot perform function operations on PII-marked attributes or parameters, nor use them inside expressions or aggregated calculations. For example, you cannot include a PII attribute as a value within an expression or aggregate.
Automation Hub	Can access sensitive data, use all nodes (where available, PII attributes and event parameters can be used only with the Equal operator in node filters to check if a PII-marked attribute or parameter is `null`, `true`, or `false` and compare their value to a specific value—even ignoring differences in capitalization and spaces, for example, in "Profile Filter" node), import and export data, access export logs	- Have limitations on using PII attributes and event parameters in the filters in nodes: they can only be used with the Equal operator to check if a PII-marked attribute or parameter is null or not null; - Have limitations on using Email Alert and SMS Alert nodes, - can’t preview the file in Local File node, - can’t use Update Profile, Import Profiles, Import Events, Import Transactions, Generate Event nodes, - can’t preview, edit, run, or resume workflows containing nodes mentioned before
Data Transformation	Can export and import data, access export logs	Can export data to trusted endpoints, cannot import data and access export logs, recommended to use sample data