Restrict PI view restricting-pii-view

Overview overview

If you need marketing users to be able to access data records but do not want them to see recipient Personally Information (PI), such as first name, last name or email address, apply the guidelines below to protect privacy and prevent data from being misused by regular campaign operators.

Implementation implementation

A specific attribute that can be applied to any element or attribute has been added to the schemas, it complements the existing attribute visibleIf. This attribute is: accessibleIf. When containing an XTK expression related to the current user context, it can leverage HasNamedRight or $(login), for instance.

You can find a sample of a recipient schema extension that shows this usage below:

<srcSchema desc="Recipient table (profiles" entitySchema="xtk:srcSchema" extendedSchema="xxl:nmsRecipientXl"
           img="nms:recipient.png" label="Recipients" labelSingular="Recipient"
           name="recipient" namespace="sec" xtkschema="xtk:srcSchema">
  <element desc="Recipient table (profiles" img="xxl:recipient.png" label="Recipients"
           labelSingular="Recipient" name="recipient">
    <attribute name="firstName" accessibleIf="$(login)=='admin'"/>
    <attribute name="lastName" visibleIf="$(login)=='admin'"/>
    <attribute name="email" accessibleIf="$(login)=='admin'"/>
  </element>
</srcSchema>

The main properties are:

  • visibleIf: hides the fields from the metadata, hence they cannot be accessed within a schema view, or column selection, or an expression builder. But this does not hide any data, if the field name is manually entered in an expression the value will show up.
  • accessibleIf: hides the data (replacing it with empty values) from resulting query. If visibleIf is empty, then it gets the same expresion as accessibleIf.

Here are the consequences of using this attribute in Campaign:

  • Data will not be shown using generic query editor in the console,
  • Data will not be visible in overview lists and record list (console).
  • Data will become read-only in detailed view.
  • Data will only be usable within filters (meaning that using some dichotomy strategies, you can still guess values).
  • Any expression that is built using a restricted field becomes restricted too: lower(@email) becomes as accessible as @email.
  • In a workflow, you can add the restricted column to the targeted population as an extra column of the transition, but it is still inaccessible to Adobe Campaign users.
  • When storing the targeted population in a group (list), the characteristics of the stored fields are the same as the source of data.
  • Data is not accessible to JS code by default.
IMPORTANT
Using the accessibleIf attribute on critical parameters (such as those in composite keys) can result in errors for users that are not allowed to read the data due to hidden data. This may lead to query failures or unexpected behavior. Ensure essential parameters are accessible to prevent disruptions.

Recommendations recommendations

In each delivery, email addresses are copied into the broadLog and the forecastLog tables: as a consequence, those fields need to be protected too.

Below is a sample of log table extension to implement this:

<srcSchema entitySchema="xtk:srcSchema" extendedSchema="nms:broadLogRcp" img="nms:broadLog.png"
           label="Recipient delivery logs" labelSingular="Recipient delivery log"
           name="broadLogRcp" namespace="sec" xtkschema="xtk:srcSchema">
  <element img="nms:broadLog.png" label="Recipient delivery logs" labelSingular="Recipient delivery log"
           name="broadLogRcp">
    <attribute accessibleIf="$(login)=='admin'" name="address"/>
  </element>
</srcSchema>
<srcSchema desc="Delivery messages being prepared." entitySchema="xtk:srcSchema"
           extendedSchema="nms:tmpBroadcast" img="" label="Messages being prepared"
           labelSingular="Message" name="tmpBroadcast" namespace="sec" xtkschema="xtk:srcSchema">
  <element desc="Delivery messages being prepared." label="Messages being prepared"
           labelSingular="Message" name="tmpBroadcast">
    <attribute accessibleIf="$(login)=='admin'" name="address"/>
  </element>
</srcSchema>
<srcSchema entitySchema="xtk:srcSchema" extendedSchema="nms:excludeLogRcp" img="nms:excludeLog.png"
           label="Recipient exclusion logs" labelSingular="Recipient exclusion log"
           name="excludeLogRcp" namespace="sec" xtkschema="xtk:srcSchema">
  <element img="nms:excludeLog.png" label="Recipient exclusion logs" labelSingular="Recipient exclusion log"
           name="excludeLogRcp">
    <attribute accessibleIf="$(login)=='admin'" name="address"/>
  </element>
</srcSchema>
CAUTION
This restriction applies to non technical users only and does not isolates data: a technical user, with related permissions, can retrieve data.
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