PI Removal

Let authorized users request and process the removal of personally identifiable information (PII) from employee, contact and customer records.

Personally identifiable information (PII) is data that can be used to determine a person's identity. Rules and regulations about PII vary by country, but usually include strict guidelines covering personal information acquisition, storage, and removal. The right to be forgotten is one of the key requirements in recent privacy laws, including in General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Administrators can use the PI Removal feature to replace the data stored in OpenAir with a standard value depending on the field type.

The PI Removal feature:

Remove personal information (PI) from relevant standard, custom, and audit trail fields. See Supported Field Types and Fields.
Improves compliance with privacy regulation.
Permits an authorized user to remove personal information without contacting OpenAir Customer Support.

You can create, submit, and approve individual PI removal requests from within OpenAir. You can view all the requests that have been submitted, including who created the request, when it was created, and the current status of the request. See Reviewing, Creating, Submitting, Approving, Rejecting, or Canceling a PII Redaction Requests.

Submitted PI removal requests must be approved before they are queued for processing. OpenAir processes approved PI removal request automatically on a set day and time each week. PI removal requests approved in the last 72 hours at the time of processing are not processed immediately but the following week. This allows a minimum of 72 hours to cancel an approved PI removal request, should it be required.

After a PI removal request is processed, the PII is redacted permanently from OpenAir and the status of the PI removal request shows as completed. Users with the appropriate privileges can cancel the request at any time before its status shows as completed.

Email notifications are sent to users with the relevant access privilege. Employes who can approve PI removal requests receive an email notification when a request is submitted. Employees who can either create or approve PI removal requests receive an email notification when a request is approved, rejected, or canceled.

To enable this feature, contact OpenAir Customer Support.

User Privileges

The following user privileges are available for PI Removal feature:

Allow employee to create PI removal requests – User can view, create, edit, submit, duplicate and cancel requests.
Allow employee to approve PI removal requests – User can view, approve or reject, and cancel requests.

Account administrators who do not have either of these user privileges can view and cancel PI removal requests.

Note:

By default, PI removal requests must be submitted and approved by different employees.

You should designate at least two employees to use the PI removal feature so that requests are created and approved by different employees.

You can allow the same employee to create and approve a PI removal request. To do so, contact OpenAir Customer Support and request the PII Redaction – Cumulative Create and Approve Privileges feature extension.

Supported Field Types and Fields

The PI Removal feature supports removal of information for the following field types. All redacted values are replaced with "**********", except where indicated otherwise in the following list.

Audit trail – Redacted value replaced by "PI Redacted by user.id <userId>" where <userId> is the internal ID for the employee who submitted the PI removal request.

Note:
When the PI removal request is processed, OpenAir redacts only the audit trail information for the standard and custom fields that are redacted as part of the same PI removal request.
Date – Redacted value replaced by "1900-01-01"
Datetime – Redacted value replaced by "1900-01-01 00:00:00"
Numeric – Redacted value replaced by "0"
Password (such as security answers, for example, if the Password Security Questions feature is enabled for your account – see Password Security Questions)
Text
Text area
URL

Information in both standard and custom fields can be redacted. The following table lists the record types and fields you can remove information from.

Record Type	Standard Fields	Custom Field Types
Contact	Email [`email`], `exported`, Fax [`fax`], First name [`first`], Job title [`job_title`], Last name [`last`], Mobile [`mobile`], Nickname [`name`], Notes [`notes`], Phone [`phone`],Title [`salutation`]	Date, Numeric, Text, Text area, URL
Customer	Address [`address1`, `address2`, `address3`, `address4`], City [`city`],Company name [`company`], Country [`country`], Email [`email`], Fax [`fax`], Email invoice text [`invoice_email_text`], Invoice prefix `[invoice_prefix`], Invoice note [`invoice_text`], Nickname [`name`], Notes [`notes`], Phone [`phone`], Rate [`rate`], State/Province [`state`], Payment terms [`terms`], Web address [`web`], ZIP/Postal code [`zip`]	Date, Numeric, Text, Text area, URL
User (Employee or Guest)	Address [`address1`, `address2`, `address3`, `address4`], City [`city`], Country [`country`], Email [`email`], Fax [`fax`], First name [`first`], Password hint [`hint`], Last name [`last`], Middle name [`middle`], Mobile [`mobile`], Employee [`name`], Employee ID [`nickname`], Phone [`phone`], Rate [`rate`], Title [`salutation`], Security answer 1 [`security_answer1`], Security answer 2 [`security_answer2`], Security answer 3 [`security_answer3`], State/Province [`state`], ZIP/Postal code [`zip`]	Date, Numeric, Text, Text area, URL

Record Type

Standard Fields

Custom Field Types

Audit trail [audit]

Contact

Email [email], exported, Fax [fax], First name [first], Job title [job_title], Last name [last], Mobile [mobile], Nickname [name], Notes [notes], Phone [phone],Title [salutation]

Date, Numeric, Text, Text area, URL

Check mark

Customer

Address [address1, address2, address3, address4], City [city],Company name [company], Country [country],

Email [email], Fax [fax], Email invoice text [invoice_email_text], Invoice prefix [invoice_prefix], Invoice note [invoice_text], Nickname [name], Notes [notes], Phone [phone], Rate [rate], State/Province [state], Payment terms [terms], Web address [web], ZIP/Postal code [zip]

Date, Numeric, Text, Text area, URL

Check mark

User (Employee or Guest)

Address [address1, address2, address3, address4], City [city], Country [country],

Email [email], Fax [fax], First name [first], Password hint [hint], Last name [last], Middle name [middle], Mobile [mobile], Employee [name], Employee ID [nickname], Phone [phone], Rate [rate], Title [salutation], Security answer 1 [security_answer1], Security answer 2 [security_answer2], Security answer 3 [security_answer3], State/Province [state], ZIP/Postal code [zip]

Date, Numeric, Text, Text area, URL

Check mark

Reviewing, Creating, Submitting, Approving, Rejecting, or Canceling a PII Redaction Requests

If the PI Removal feature is enabled for your company's OpenAir account, depending on your user privileges, you can review, create, submit, approve, reject, or cancel personally identifiable information (PII) redaction requests.

To review, create, submit, approve, reject, or cancel a PI removal request

Go to Administration > Global Settings > Organization > PII Removal (Administrator).

For each request, you can see the PI removal request name, the record type, when it was created, who created the request, who approved it, and the request status. The request status can be Open (request created but not submitted for approval), Submitted, Approved, Rejected, Terminated (approved request subsequently canceled), or Completed (request processed and information removed).
To view the details of each request, click the PI removal request name or the Edit icon under the Actions column. On the PI removal request form, you can see which records, and fields were, or are yet to be removed, and the redaction request includes the audit trail. If the request was not submitted, you can edit the request details.
To create a new PI removal request, click the Create button then New PI removal request.

A form appears.
Select the type of record you want to redact information from, then click Continue.

The PI removal request form appears.
1. Enter a PI removal request name.
2. Select the Record to redact information from.
  
  The dropdown lists records identified by their internal ID in square brackets, followed by their Name (Employee records) or Nickname (Contacts and Customers).
3. Select the Fields containing the information to be redacted. You can select multiple fields to be redacted at the same time.
4. Check the Redact audit trail box if you want to redact the audit trail information.
5. Click Save or Save and Submit. You cannot edit a PI removal request after you submit it.
To make a copy of a PI removal request, click the Clone icon under the Actions column, change details as required on the PI removal request form, then click Save or Save and Submit.
To approve or reject a submitted PI removal request, click the PI removal request name then click Approve or Reject.
To cancel an approved PI removal request, go to the PI removal request and click Terminate. Canceled PI removal requests cannot be modified or resubmitted. To redact PII for the same record, create and submit a new PI removal request.