1. Account Administration
  2. Auditing and Data Management
  3. Personal Information (PI) Removal
  4. Creating and Approving a New PI Removal Request

Creating and Approving a New PI Removal Request

Use the Personal Information Removal feature to create and approve requests to remove personal information from NetSuite fields, records, and audit logs.

Note:

The Personal Information Removal feature does not support removing details on sublist fields. For information about how to remove sublist field details, see Removing Personal Information on a Sublist Field.

Note:

If you need to create a large number of PI removal requests simultaneously, consider splitting them into multiple batches of up to one thousand requests per batch to avoid possible performance issues.

Warning:

When you remove personal information, it is removed from all transaction records. In the following example a company name was removed.

Sales order with company name removed

To create a new PI removal request:

  1. Go to Lists > Mass Update > Remove Personal Information.

  2. On the Personal Information Removal Request page, click New.

  3. In the Record Type field, choose the record type for the records you want to process.

    New PI Removal Request page

  4. In the Records list, choose which records you want to process.

    You can use the search field to find specific records using a search word or ID number. Do one of the following

    • Enter a search word, such as a contact name, and then click the Search icon or press Enter.

    • Enter ID: XX (where XX is the ID number). To search for multiple IDs, separate the ID numbers with commas, for example, ID: XX, YY, ZZ. Then click the Search icon or press Enter

    The Records column displays only partial information about the records. When more than 100 records exist, the range of records that have been loaded appears. You download records in groups of 100. The first 100 records load automatically. To load the next 100 records, click the double arrows beside the number range. The plus sign (+) beside the number range indicates there are more records to load. As records are loaded, the range updates to show the number of loaded records.

    When you enter a term into the Records filter field, results appear as they are found. The range of numbers adjusts to show the number of records loaded to find the filtered results. If all records were loaded before you applied the filter, the range of numbers does not change.

  5. (Optional) To view only the selected records, check the View selected box. Note that the view selected option is not available for records filtered using the ID search.

  6. In the Fields list, choose the fields you want to replace with the replacement value. Use the Fields filter to filter the list.

    Note:

    You cannot create PI removal requests for address fields that are needed for tax and shipping calculations, such as Country, Subdivision, Postal Code, and City.

  7. (Optional) To view only the selected fields, check the View selected box.

  8. In the Workflows list, choose the workflows for which you want to remove personal information from the workflow history. Use the Workflows filter field to filter the list.

  9. (Optional) To view only the selected workflows, check the View selected box.

  10. Choose whether you want to process History Only (system notes and workflow logs) or History and Fields (history plus record fields).

  11. (Optional) In the History Replacement field, enter the text to use in history (system notes and workflow logs) to replace the original values. If no text is entered, NetSuite uses the default replacement value of PI Removed Upon Request. These values appear in gray text.

  12. When personal information is removed from fields, the field value is replaced with a default replacement value. To see the list of replacement values, click See the list in the Field Value Replacement field. These values are:

    • PI_removed for text fields

      Note:

      Record names must be unique. Therefore, for records, the default value includes a sequence number.

    • 000000000 for phone numbers

    • PI_removed@example.com for email addresses

    • http://example.com for web addresses

    • 1/1/1900 for date fields.

    Note:

    Due to constraints and validations, record updates for the field types in the preceding list may fail, and only system notes will be updated. If the record update fails, you must manually update the value on the record. For example, to remove an address from a customer record, go to Lists > Relationships > Customers. Click Edit for the appropriate customer record, and then remove the address information, as needed.

  13. To continue with the data removal, click Save. The removal request is generated and appears with a status of Created.

  14. To approve the removal, click the Approve icon.

    Approve icon

    A confirmation message appears warning you that all data will be lost permanently and asking if you want to proceed. To proceed, click Yes, Proceed. Otherwise, click Cancel.

The request waits in the queue with a Pending status until it is processed.

Personal Information Removal Request page showing Pending status.

For more information about PI Removal Request icons, see Using PI Removal Request Icons.

Removing Personal Information from the System Notes

Watch the following help video for information about removing personal information from the system notes:

This is the second video in a 4–part series of videos about System Notes. To watch the other parts of the series, see:

Related Topics

General Notices