Overview

Sometimes you will have to anonymize the content of a specific user, for example, because she or he's leaving the company. We’ve created this tool not only to make it possible. We also implemented some other possibilities for specific use cases. You can choose various options of anonymization to meet all your requirements.

The “User Anonymizer” module allows you to change all the references in issue pickers (like assignee, reporter, etc.), user mentions in text fields (like description, comments, etc.), various ownership (like work log authors, attachment authors, etc) from a source user to a target user. A source user is a person who should be anonymized. The target user could be a real person, who becomes an owner of all the content of the source user, or some special service user (read more about a service user App configuration).

Panel	Option	Description

Panel	Option	Description
Users to be anonymized	Source Users	User picker field. User (s) to be anonymized. It could be one person or multiple users from some group
Content changes	A first tab represents all the content-related changes (in tickets, comment, attachments, work logs, etc.)
	Target User	User picker field. Only one user can be selected
	JQL	Scope definition. Anonymization will process only selected tickets
	Various fields (user pickers, text fields, etc.) …	Checkboxes. Fields to be changed. You should select at least one field to start anonymization
Shared objects changes	The tab represents all the changes related to shared objects. In most cases it is very important to change ownership of shared objects from a source user to some real user, who will be responsible for these shared objects
	Target User	User picker field. Only one user can be selected. Select some real person who will take care of all the affected shared objects
	Various shared object types (dashboards, filters, etc.) …	Checkboxes. Shared objects which ownership to be changed. You should select at least one type to start anonymization
Global changes	The last tab represents all the changes that we can make in general with a source user. It is not possible to make most changes if a user belongs to an external user directory! Global changes will be processed successfully only for users from the internal user directory.

Quick anonymization process

Select one or multiple Source Users
Select “Content changes”
Select “Target User”, same as your “Service User”
Check all the content changing options
Click “Get affected content (dry run)”
Check the affected tickets
If everything is OK - click “Execute” to start anonymization

Get affected content (dry run) vs Execute

“Get affected content (dry run)” function does not make any changes in Jira! It is just looking for affected content and shows it on the page.

“Execute” starts the anonymization process. Anonymization is permanent and irreversible. After successful anonymization, you will not be able to view previous content related to the Source User.

Erasure requests

Provide the ability for users to ask to delete/anonymize their personal data. This function is very useful if an employee leaves the company. In this case, he or she can make a direct request for deleting the personal data.

How a user can ask for erasure:

Open the profile page
Click “Edit” for GDPR settings
Click “Request the erasure of my data” and confirm sending the request

Jira administrators will get all anonymization requests in the “User Anonymizer” module or on the “GDPR and security home” page.