Complying with Privacy and Data Protection Law in Zendesk Chat

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This guide describes how certain features and functionality in Zendesk Chat created in Support and in Zendesk Message can assist with your obligations under privacy law.

To learn more about meeting your obligations in other Zendesk products, see Complying with Privacy and Data Protection Law in Zendesk products. For standalone Chat accounts, see Complying with Privacy and Data Protection Law in standalone Chat accounts. If you are using web, mobile, or social messaging, please follow the processes outlined in Complying with Privacy and Data Protection Law in Zendesk Support.

In this guide, users can be End-Users or Agents as the terms are defined in the Zendesk Customer Agreement.

In a Chat account created in Zendesk Support, chat agents are managed in Support. Because agents are shared between Chat and Message, any information about agents in this guide applies to both Chat and Message.

End users in Chat may also be managed in Support because chats initiated in Chat can be saved as tickets in Support. Each ticket can include details about the visitor's chat session and a chat transcript. A user profile is also created. Depending on how your account is configured, tickets can be created automatically for each chat or manually by agents.

Topics covered in this article:

Meeting an access obligation

Meeting a correction obligation

Meeting an erasure or deletion obligation

Meeting a data portability obligation

Meeting the objection obligation

Meeting a consent or disclosure obligation

Disclaimer

Meeting an access obligation

Individuals from certain regions have a right of access. On request, you may have an obligation to inform an end user or agent where their personal data is being held and for what purposes.

If an end user requests access to their personal data

Export personal data from Chat as described in Meeting a data portability obligation in the article for standalone Chat accounts.

If a ticket was created in Zendesk Support for any of the end user's chats, personal data may exist in Support. You can export the data from Support as described in Meeting a data portability obligation in the article for Zendesk Support.

If an agent requests access their personal data

If an agent requests their personal data, you can export the data from Zendesk Support as described in Meeting a data portability obligation in the article for Zendesk Support.

Meeting a correction obligation

Individuals from certain regions have a right to rectification, or the right to have inaccuracies in their personal data corrected. On request, you may have an obligation to provide the individual with their personal data and fix inaccuracies or add missing information.

If an end user makes the request

Correct personal data in Chat as described in Meeting a correction obligation in the article for standalone Chat accounts.

If a ticket was created in Zendesk Support for any of the end user's chats, personal data may exist in Support. You can correct the data in Support as described in Meeting a correction obligation in the article for Zendesk Support.

If an agent makes the request

Make the corrections to the agent profile in Zendesk Support as described in Meeting a correction obligation in the article for Zendesk Support.

Meeting an erasure or deletion obligation

Individuals from certain regions have a right to erasure, or the right to be forgotten or deleted. On request, you may have an obligation to delete the personal data of an individual.

The end user must start a chat to request that you delete their personal data from Chat.

Chat agents are managed in Support. Chat end users may be managed in both Chat and Support. End users can be managed in Support because chats initiated in Chat can be saved as tickets in Support. Each ticket can include details about the visitor's chat session and a chat transcript. A user profile is also created. Depending on how your account is configured, tickets can be created automatically for each chat or manually by agents.

The workflow for deleting the personal data of an end user or agent in Chat or Message is as follows:

Delete chats.

Delete Message conversations,.

Delete the end user or agent from Zendesk Chat and Zendesk Support.

The order of operations is important because user data might be needed to find chats, messages, or tickets containing personal data.

To delete chats

The following topics in this guide describe how to delete chats:

Deleting chats

Permanently deleting chats

Deleting chats with the API

To delete Message conversations

You must delete a Message conversation to delete any personal data it might contain. See the following topic in this guide:

Deleting Message conversations

To delete the end user or agent

If a ticket was created in Zendesk Support for any of the end user's chats, delete the end user in Support as described in Meeting an erasure or deletion obligation in the article for Zendesk Support.

Delete an agent in Zendesk Support as described in Meeting an erasure or deletion obligation in the article for Zendesk Support.

The name of the end user or agent deleted in Support isn't scrubbed from chat transcripts in Chat. You can remove the name by deleting the chat.

Deleting chats

Delete chats that contain personal data.

Only Chat admins can delete a chat.

Note: This procedure only soft deletes the chat. The chat will only be permanently removed on account cancellation as part of the Zendesk Data Deletion Policy. To permanently delete a chat immediately, see Permanently deleting chats below.

To delete a chat

From the dashboard, select History.

Select the checkbox next to the chat you want to delete.

Click the Actions drop-down menu.

Select Delete.

Permanently deleting chats

Only admins can permanently delete a chat.

To permanently delete a chat

From the dashboard, select History.

In the History tab, search for a chat using agent name, visitor name, content, and more.
A list of chats is returned.

Select the chats to delete, then select Delete Chat from Chat History.

Deleting chats with the API

To delete a chat

DELETE /api/v2/chats/{chat_id}

See Delete Chat in the developer documentation.

To find a chat to delete

GET /api/v2/chats/search?q={search_string}

See Search Chats.

Note: The Chat API has a different endpoint format than the Support API. For details, see Introduction in the Chat API docs.

Deleting Message conversations

You can delete the end user and conversation by deleting the conversation session.

Only admins can delete a session.

To delete a conversation

In the dashboard, click the Done Conversations icon in the left sidebar.

Select the conversation to delete, then select Delete session from the extended (...) menu in the upper-right side of the page.

Meeting a data portability obligation

Individuals from certain regions have a right to data portability. On request, you may have an obligation to provide an individual with their personal data or to transmit the data to another organization.

If an end user makes the request

Export personal data from Chat as described in Meeting a data portability obligation in the article for standalone Chat accounts.

If a ticket was created in Zendesk Support for any of the end user's chats, personal data may exist in Support. You can export the data from Support as described in Meeting a data portability obligation in the article for Zendesk Support.

If an agent makes the request

Export the data from Zendesk Support as described in Meeting a data portability obligation in the article for Zendesk Support.

Meeting the objection obligation

Individuals from certain regions have a right of objection, or the right to object to direct marketing. You may have an obligation to stop processing personal data for direct marketing purposes when you receive an objection from an individual.

Meeting a consent or disclosure obligation

Disclosure or notification obligations within the Zendesk widgets can be met in a number of different ways:

Users of Zendesk messaging in the Web Widget may include a default messaging response or provide a link to your company’s privacy notice.

Users of bot-enhanced messaging in the Web Widget may use bot builder to include custom messages at any stage in the conversation, including at the transfer step before a conversation is handed off from the bot to an agent (which is when transcript creation begins).

Users of bot-enhanced messaging in the Web Widget may include the name of “bot” in their selection of the name of the bot. Users may also include a pre-chat introduction.

Users of live chat in Web Widget (Classic) or the legacy chat widget may enable a pre-chat form or configure the concierge or chat badge accordingly.

If you wish to control the launching of a widget itself on the basis of your cookie tool, our In-Product Cookie Policy here includes instructions on how to control each of Zendesk’s web chat widgets by this method. This article explains how to install a cookie bot into a Zendesk help center.

See Notifying end users of legal terms in Zendesk's web-based widgets for more information.

Disclaimer

This document is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should always seek legal advice before taking any action with respect to the matters discussed herein.