GDPR and Hidden Fields

[Anonymous]

On a similar vein of thought - as far as I know you still cant delete fields in Marketo - now that we are aware we should "only collect the data we need" - its actually quite important to be able to delete fields and their stored values in Marketo, due to having legacy data, as well as to prevent them from being recorded to by stopping them existing. Does anyone know if this is possible yet? Peter Bell​ do you know if this is planned?

[Dan_Stevens_]

Curious as to why you would want to delete a field (rather than just the data within that field?

[Anonymous]

If we are asked to provide all the data we hold on an individual - and we have fields for "x personal data" - it increases "doubt" it also allows for more mistakes/risk.

So risk mitigation - remove fields so that we can definitely say we only hold the data we need - "data and purpose minimization"

[Dan_Stevens_]

I suppose this makes sense - to some extent - for some fields; and if your target audience is 100% EU focused and you have no use for that field across your entire instance/database.  But GDPR comes with a variety of consent and different ways to capture/use personal data.  In some instances, you may only be able to capture email address - and nothing else; in other cases, you will require more detail - depending how the data will be used (legitimate interest).  Can you provide an example of a field that you would want to delete?

If Marketo doesn't provide a way to physically delete a field (and just allow you to "hide" fields), you might want to think about running a batch campaign to clear all data from specific fields and ensure those fields are not contained on any forms or within the spreadsheets/templates that you might use to get data into Marketo.  You could even batch populated a "N/A" or "NOT USED" value in those fields - and then block all field updates to that field.

[Anonymous]

So if you're in an instance with any age (2+ years) you're likely to have redundant fields, from integrations, old approaches, etc. This could vary wildly across different organisations. The risks are:

• Capturing/holding data that you dont want (example - date of birth, national ID for an event etc)
• Making authorities believe you intend to hold data you dont want (empty fields for national ID etc)
• GDPR data requests presenting data you shouldnt have or would regret publishing (think salespersons comments in a crm)

Keep in mind "hiding" data in Marketo is not the same thing as getting rid of it and running multiple batch campaigns to block out fields is risky (aka something can go wrong) hence the question - to increase our ability to manage our databases, will Marketo allow us to delete fields.

[Karen_Black]

I have had an idea in to the Marketo product team for a few years now on deleting Marketo fields.  I asked when and if it could be implemented during the last Summit, and what was mentioned is that they are working on it, but do not have a timeline on when it will occur.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Good points, Robert.  And maybe this will push Marketo to finally give us the ability to physically delete fields.  If you're like us, you probably have a bunch of hidden fields that just add bulk to your instance.

[Anonymous]

Also wanted to chime in here.

Clearing data from fields via batch campaigns would only provide the appearance that the field no longer holds any data. However, previous data entries could still be accessed and extracted by diving into the person's activity history or via the Marketo REST API. Based on the language of GDPR, I'm assuming that a permanent deletion of this data is required, meaning that clearing the data or blocking field updates would not drive compliance. Thoughts?

[Dan_Stevens_]

Great point, Brian.