Deleting Contacts & Anonymize Corresponding Responses | XM Community
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We have some requirement which we are currently challenging:

  • A contact should be deleted completely

  • The responses of the deleted contact should not be deleted but only anonymized

  • If possible we would like to define which contact data should be anonymized on the response and which data should be kept (e.g. keep information about the contact's city, however, delete/anonymize everything else like contact ID or name)

At the end we will need to implement this with the corresponding API calls. However, in order to check that requirement, I tried to test this up on the Qualtrics UI. Therefore, I created a new contact and sent a survey to this contact. I myself finished the survey then in order to have some response data for that contact. Next, I deleted the contact from the XM directory:
image.pngThe information said that "survey responses ... will not be deleted but the response will no longer be associated with the contact". However, after deleting this contact, I had a look at the responses again (via "Data & Analysis"). There, I still saw the contact data (like name) just as before deleting the contact. Can anyone explain this to me?
Is it possible to keep and anonymize the response data as described? Is it also possible to keep specific contact information on the survey response (e.g. specific embedded/transactional data)?
Thanks for your expertise!

Hi,
Within the UI, you should be able to achieve this by replacing the value of the fields you want to anonymize by an empty or dummy value (like XXXXX).

  • Survey project

  • Data and analysis tab

  • Select all responses, then modify the selected ones.

But it's a manual process.

We are using the update response API to achieve this automatically, daily. We chose the fields with PII and replace their value for XXXXXXX.

Even if the contact is deleted, as soon as the survey response is saved, the contact fields are stocked with the survey response, so you need to remove them also.

https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/36606#Comment_36606Hey ALAFLEUR,
thanks for that. I just discovered this as well. Is it possible to update multiple fields on the response with one API call? Or do you need one API call per field?
The issue then is maybe also that you need to do this for all responses which the contact gave (for multiple surveys). So you need to identify the surveys and responses first and then update one by one...

I'm not the IT guy who configured this, but I'm pretty sure 1 API call can update multiple fields.
Are you trying to achieve this for a single contact of for all your contacts and surveys?

https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/36608#Comment_36608Hey ALAFLEUR,
no, only for one contact. So e.g. due to GDPR we need to delete/anonymize all contact information. This also affects the Qualtrics contact and the corresponding responses. We would fully delete the contact. However, we would like to keep the response data without the personal data. We would only keep general data (like city) for reporting purpose.
But I mean this is one approach to update everything with " " or whatever except of the general non-personal data we want to keep. I think you can clear all kind of fields (contact fields as well as embedded data fields).

Shouldn't you use the data privacy tab from the admin tab for this if it's only for one contact?

https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/36610#Comment_36610Hey ALAFLEUR,
we don't store email addresses in Qualtrics. I also don't know if it would be possible to keep specific parts of the response with this approach. And furthermore, we need some automated way since we are trying to set up this process for a very huge company which has multiple deletion requests daily...
I guess I will go further with the approach to update response data via API.

I cleared (" ") the external data reference (our XM directory key) in the Data & Analysis UI. However, when checking the contacts transaction, I have still insight on the response. Is it possible to hide the response from the contact's transactional data (no reference between contact and survey response)?

Long time ago… Just wanted to provide an update how we handled the requirement at the end. We tried to stick to the standard approach and define some retention policies for our brand, especially the one for anonymization. This seemed to be the easiest way to anonymize the response data and also provides us flexibility which fields to anonymize.

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