Overview

Masking hides sensitive information from unauthorized users, such as emails, phone numbers, or payment IDs. This feature ensures that PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is visible only to users with the appropriate role-based access. It helps businesses comply with data privacy regulations such as GDPR and enforce internal data governance policies.

Masking ensures the following:

• Protection of PII
• Enforcement of internal data access policies
• Compliance with regulations (for example, GDPR, CCPA)

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Access Control

• Only dashboard users with Admin access can mask custom events or user properties.
• To use this feature, ensure that Admin roles do not have any custom roles assigned.

Mask Event Data

CleverTap masks specific system user properties and allows users to mask custom user and event properties of their preference.

System Properties

CleverTap pre-masks specific System User and Event properties.

The following lists all the system user and event properties masked by default.

System User Properties

• Email
• Phone number
• Identity
• Name
• Gender
• DOB (Date of Birth)
• Latitude
• Longitude
• Location

System Event Properties

• Email
• Phone number
• Identity
• For the event Identity Set, the PII property ID is masked.
• For the event Identity Reset, the PII property ID is masked.
• For the event Identity Error, the PII property ID is masked.

For more information on System Events and properties, refer to Events.

Custom Properties

CleverTap supports two ways to mask custom event properties:

• Mask a Single Property
• Mask Multiple Properties in Bulk

Mask a Single Property

Users can mask a single user or event property, such as a user name or email.

To mask a single custom event property, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Settings > Schema >Events > Custom events.
2. Click the Properties hyperlink for the relevant custom event.
3. Click the icon, next to the property name and select Mask.
4. In the confirmation dialog, click Mask.

This action masks the value of selected properties.

Once confirmed, CleverTap masks the selected property in the background. The Admin user receives an email notification after masking a property.

Mask Bulk Properties

Users can simultaneously mask multiple properties of a single custom event for faster setup. To mask multiple custom event properties in bulk, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Settings > Schema > Events > Custom events.
2. Click the Properties hyperlink for the relevant custom event.
3. Select the properties to mask, then click the mask icon to mask properties in bulk.
4. In the confirmation dialog, click Mask.

This action masks the values of all selected properties. Only admins can mask/unmask an event property.

Once the properties are masked, they are queued for processing. Within a few minutes, values for all masked properties are replaced with placeholder text as shown below:

Unmask Event Data

To Unmask a single custom event property, perform the following:

1. Go to Settings > Schema >Events > Custom events.
2. Click the Properties hyperlink for the relevant custom event.
3. Click the icon, next to the property name and select Unmask.
4. In the confirmation dialog, click Unmask.

Masked Data

• Masked values appear as obfuscated or placeholder text in the dashboard.
• Users with restricted access are unable to view the actual property value. For example, a masked value of an email appears as below:

• Admin users can view PII values in plain text or unmask them as needed, while other user roles with PII visibility access can only view the masked icon.

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Enable PII masking

To enable this feature for your account, contact your Customer Success Manager or raise a support ticket.

FAQs

Which user roles can apply masking to event or user properties?

Only Admin users can mask or unmask custom events or user properties. Non-admin users cannot apply masking.

Can I mask custom properties?

Yes. CleverTap allows you to mask any custom user or event properties via the dashboard.

Can masked properties be unmasked later?

Yes, Admin users can unmask properties by:

1. Navigating to the custom event’s property list
2. Clicking the ellipsis icon next to the property
3. Selecting Unmask and confirming the action

Can masking be reversed by non-admin users?

No. Only Admin users have permission to unmask properties. Non-admin users cannot reverse or access masked values.

Does masking affect data processing or segmentation?

Masking only affects the visibility of data on the dashboard; it does not impact how the data is ingested, stored, or used in segmentation, analytics, or campaigns.

Is there any notification for masking actions?

Yes. Admins receive an email notification when a property is masked or unmasked, helping maintain visibility and traceability of sensitive data actions.