Skip to content
Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Create anonymization techniques

Create a data privacy technique configuration to customize how data privacy anonymizes your data.

Before you begin

Role required: data_privacy_admin and admin

Procedure

  1. Elevate to the data_privacy_admin role.

    For details on role elevation, see Elevate to a privileged role.

  2. Navigate to System Security > Data Privacy > Anonymization.

  3. Select View techniques.

    There are several pre-defined techniques available for selection.

TechniqueDescription
Selective ReplaceThis technique does a selective replace of String data. All characters between the input's start and end indices are replaced with the character you choose. You can specify characters to exclude from masking:- start\_index: Technique masks data starting at the specified character. If left blank, masking begins with the first character. - end\_index: Technique masks data from the start of the string to the specified character. If left blank, masking ends with the last character. - exclude\_char: Define a character to exclude from masking. - replacement\_char: Define a character used for masking. If none is provided, asterisks\(\*\) are used by default.
Static ReplaceThis technique swaps values with static values. String, Number, and Date data can use this technique:- date\_time\_value: Replace Date values with this date. Use the yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss format. - date\_value: Replace Date values with this date. Use the yyyy-MM-dd format. - number\_value: Replace Number values with this number. - string\_value: Replace String values with this text. - number\_type: Accepts an integer number
Random ReplaceThis technique swaps values with randomly generated values. String and Number data can use this technique.
RemoveThis technique removes values, replacing them with empty \(null\) values.
No ActionThis technique is a placeholder. It does not modify fields when selected.
Selective Replace with XTransforms String data and selectively replaces sensitive characters with the letter X.Note: Default technique for data patterns in Exploring Data Discovery (Classic).
Data pattern anonymizationOnly anonymizes discovered data patterns within unstructured data fields while keeping underlying context intact. Note: Settings for this technique reference data pattern anonymization technique settings in Exploring Data Discovery (Classic).
  1. Select Add custom technique, if not using a pre-defined technique.

  2. Fill in the fields in the Customize technique form.

    Field1Description
    Base techniqueSelect a pre-defined technique, as custom techniques are based on the pre-defined techniques.
    Technique nameEnter a name for the technique.
    Technique descriptionEnter a description for the technique.
  3. Select Next.

  4. Enter the technique parameters.

    The available parameterized values depend on which privacy technique you have selected. There are no parameterized values for the No Action and Remove techniques.

    Base TechniquePrivacy Technique Parameter valueDescriptionDefault value
        
    Selective Replaceend_indexTechnique masks data from the start of the string to the specified character. If left empty, masking ends with the last character.(Empty)
    Selective Replaceexclude_charCharacter to skip masking. Only a single character can be used in this value. If more than one is entered, the first character is used.(Empty)
    Selective Replacereplacement_charCharacter to use when replacing values using a selective replace.An asterisk (*) is used if no other value is entered.
    Selective Replacestart_indexTechnique masks data starting at the specified character.If left blank, masking starts at the first character.
    Static Replacedate_time_valueReplace date and time values with this date. Use the yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss format.1988-11-11 10:10:10
    Static Replacedate_valueReplace date values with this date. Use the yyyy-MM-dd format.1988-11-11
    Static Replacenumber_valueReplace Number values with this number.1234567
    Static Replacestring_valueReplace String values with this text.TEXT123
    Random Replacepreserve_data_lengthSet to true to preserve data length. De-identified data will have the same length as the original data.True
  5. Select Create Custom Technique.

    Your custom technique is added to the Anonymization techniques.

What to do next

See Create anonymization policies to configure an anonymization policy to specify which techniques are used when anonymizing your data.