About data masking (ADPP add-on)

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Add-on

Advanced Data Privacy and Protection (ADPP)







Verified AI summary ◀▼


The data masking feature in the Advanced Data Privacy and Protection
add-on helps protect sensitive information by hiding personally identifiable
information (PII) from agents in custom and light agent roles. It limits data
exposure, supports GDPR compliance, and allows you to control which user
data is visible. Note that data masking doesn't alter database information
and has some limitations, such as restricted agent actions.




The data masking feature, part of the
Advanced Data Privacy and Protection add-on,
allows you to
hide personally identifiable information (PII) from agents in custom
and light agent
roles.


Data masking helps reduce unnecessary exposure to sensitive information
by limiting the
data that agents can view. For example, a company collaborating with
high-profile
clients may restrict access so that agents only see user data when it's
required for
their role. This practice also supports compliance with regulations such
as the General
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which emphasizes data minimization
and controlled
access.


This article includes the following topics:


Understanding data masking


Data masking limitations


Understanding the differences between data redaction and data masking



Related article:


Turning on and configuring data
masking




Understanding data masking


Data masking allows admins to create and assign agents to custom
and light agent
roles to determine which data is masked from agents.


When a role is configured with data masking, agents see only the
PII required for
their responsibilities, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
Masking is applied
at the presentation layer only, so PII in the database remains unchanged.
Agents in
roles without masking continue to see all PII. When a role with masking
settings is
saved, Zendesk automatically updates permissions to hide restricted
PII. Agents
assigned to the masked role will see a lock icon next to any PII
fields they are not
permitted to view.


Data masking supports masking the following system fields in the
Support and Guide
areas of Zendesk:

Name
Email
Phone



The system fields listed above will be masked in the following areas
of Zendesk
Support:

End-user profile

End-user fields in the context of a ticket (requester, CCs,
followers)

Email notifications
Ticket views
Support search
Triggers and automations (business rules)
Side conversations



For Knowledge, PII is masked from agents with permission to
manage Guide.
This applies to:

User segments
User content
Spam
Community moderation views



Note that end-user data that has been made public will be visible
to agents, even
with data masking in place. For example, if moderation is turned
on and an end user
posts a public comment, their name won't be masked because it can
be seen in the
help center.




Data masking limitations


Data masking may restrict certain agent actions that require access
to PII. Features
such as managing end-user profiles will be unavailable to agents
in roles with
masking, and some tasks, such as managing suspended tickets, may
be limited. Core
workflows for solving tickets remain unaffected.


General limitations



Any functionality outside the scope described in
Understanding data masking,
including Sell, QA, WFM,
Talk, and Explore, is not supported with masking.


Zendesk recommends testing data masking in a
sandbox environment.



Support limitations



Managing end-user profiles, merging tickets, and masking of PII
in ticket
comments are not yet supported.


Managing organizations, managing suspended tickets, placeholders,
legacy CCs,
print ticket, and View original email functionality is unavailable
for masked
agents.


AI-generated ticket summaries
may
expose PII if turned on.






Understanding the differences between data redaction and data masking



Data redaction and data masking are both techniques used to protect
sensitive
information, but they serve different purposes.


Data redaction allows admins or
agents in custom roles with permission
to permanently
remove sensitive information from tickets, ensuring that deleted
data can't be
retrieved or viewed by any agents. Agents can
redact ticket content manually,
or with the Advanced
Data Privacy and Protection add-on, admins can create triggers to
automatically redact ticket data.


Data masking offers an alternative approach to protecting sensitive
information. It
allows certain roles to have end-user names, email addresses, and
phone numbers
obscured based on role settings. This means that while the original
data remains
intact, it's hidden from view for agents without permission. This
capability allows
customers to maintain data integrity while safeguarding user privacy.


While data redaction permanently removes sensitive information, data
masking provides
a way to obscure it based on user permissions.