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Introduction

How does it work?

User Anonymization is done by removing all references to a Jira user and replace them with a new anonymous technical user.

You should first create an anonymous technical user in your own Jira instance. Then you can use our "User Anonymizer for Jira" app to change the references of a user to your new anonymous user. Optionally, you may delete the user or remove the user from an external user directory sync after the anonymization process, depending on your requirements.

Where does Jira store personal data?

There are plenty of places where Jira does store personal information. The following elements are supported to be anonymized by "User Anonymizer for Jira".

Projects

Remove user

Preparation

Installing the Add-on

The add-on is available on the Atlassian Marketplace. To install the add-on, log in as a system administrator and navigate to the add-on management in the administration console (choose Cog icon > Add-ons at top right of the screen or use the keyboard shortcut: press 'gg' then type 'Find new add-ons'). In the menu on the left click the “Find New Add-ons” link. Search for “user anonymizer for jira” to display our add-on “User Anonymizer for Jira (GDPR)”. Click the Buy Now or Free Trial button to install the add-on.

If the installation was successful, a new section “User Anonymizer” appears in the administration. This is where the anonymization of users takes place. If this section is not visible, please ensure that all required modules of the add-on are enabled. For this you should select the “User Anonymizer for Jira (GDPR)” from the list of installed add-ons.

Licensing

The add-on needs a valid license to have all the provided features working. Valid licenses include full licenses, renewal licenses, or 30-day trials and are available on the Atlassian Marketplace. The license model is the same as the one Atlassian uses for its products – for further information see Atlassian’s documentation.

To get a license and provide it for the plugin, please carry out the following:

• Go to the license settings page (Administration > Add-ons > “Manage add-ons”: Extend “User Anonymizer for Jira (GDPR)”)
• Use the links to create a new license at the Atlassian Marketplace (use “Free Try” to get a new trial license or “Buy Now” to purchase a full license), or copy a license you got from Communardo.
• Enter the license key in the license screen.

Without a valid license, the user anonymizer shows the message “Invalid or missing license key” instead of the user anonymizer configuration screen.

Prepare your Jira System

To use "User Anonymizer for Jira (GDPR)" you should first create a technical anonymous Jira user. Go to Jira User management and create a user, for example with the username "anonymous". Once created please edit the user properties and set the user inactive.

You may choose the name freely, but it should clearly be identified as an anonymous technical user. It is also possible to create more than one anonymous user with different names.

But remember, every anonymous user should be set inactive to avoid logins. Anonymous users may have advanced permissions (for example if set as project lead by the anonymization process).

Who can anonymize data?

Starting with version 2.0 you can restrict who has access to the anonymization using permissions.

Generally, users who belong to a group that has JIRA System Administrator permissions can anonymize user data. In Jira default configuration, this is everyone in the group jira-administrators because the group has JIRA System Administrator permissions.

If you want to make sure that only a specific group of users can anonymize data, you need to create separate groups for those with JIRA Administrator permissions and those with JIRA System Administrator permissions. Only the latter group will be able to anonymize data.

For further information regarding the administration of groups in Jira, please refer to the Atlassian documentation.

Anonymization process

Image RemovedImage 1: User Anonymizer User Interface

Configure User Anonymizer

Please enter one or more users you want to anonymize (1) in the User Anonymizer form (see Image 1).

Set the technical anonymous user (2) you created manually before.

Optionally, you may enter any JQL query (3) to limit the anonymization process to a subset of Jira issues.

Anonymize Project Settings

You may enable the checkbox (4) to anonymize all project settings. Using this feature will not only anonymize issues, but also anonymize project lead, component lead and project roles for all Jira projects (no matter what subset of Jira issues were selected by the JQL query in step (3)).

Test anonymization

Click "Test anonymization" (5) to test the anonymization with the currently selected options. In this step no personal data will be changed, it is safe to click this button.

As a result you get a list of the elements that matches your selected users and will be anonymized (Image 3).

Image RemovedImage 2: Result table of "Test anonymization"

Execute anonymization

The result table of "Test anonymization" (Image 3) gives you an overview of the elements that will be anonymized. Click "Execute" (6) to anonymize the personal data.

As the anonymization process may take a while depending on the amount of issues, the current progress will be shown and updated automatically. 

Image RemovedImage 3: Running Anonymization progress

Start new anonymization

After anonymization process finishes, you can start a new personal data anonymization by clicking "Start new anonymization" button at the bottom of the anonymization table. 

Image Removed

Image 4: Start new anonymization process

Please refer to this guide for instructions on how to install and use the User Anonymizer for Jira (GDPR).