Practical safeguards

Practical Safeguards

1. Data minimization

Only collect what you need.

Before sending any variable:

• "Do we need this?"
• "Is it useful for decisions?"
• If no → don't send it

Example:

• Need: Page name (debug reports)
• Don't need: Page HTML (too much data)
• Need: User segment (target messaging)
• Don't need: User email (PII)

2. Variable naming

Use generic, non-identifying names.

Good:

• prop1 = "user_segment" (Premium, Standard, Free)
• eVar1 = "traffic_source" (Organic, Paid, Direct)
• prop2 = "form_step" (Intro, Personal, Review, Confirm)

Bad:

• prop1 = "email_address"
• eVar1 = "customer_name"
• prop2 = "social_security"

3. Masking/hashing

Hash sensitive data before sending.

// Email address
const email = "alice@example.com";
const hashedEmail = sha256(email);
s.prop5 = hashedEmail;
// Sent: "abc123def456..." (cannot reverse to email)

4. Processing rules

Remove PII on the server side.

Rule: If Page Name contains "@", delete it Effect: Even if accidentally sent, removed before storage

5. IP anonymization

Remove last octets of IP.

Original: 203.0.113.42 Anonymized: 203.0.113.0 (still geo-locatable, not personally identifiable)

6. Bot filtering

Exclude non-humans.

Benefit: Cleaner data, less storage How: Enable IAB bot list in admin

7. Audit regularly

Monthly check:

[ ] Review data quality dashboard
[ ] Search for PII in sample data (@, SSN patterns)
[ ] Check consent is being honored
[ ] Verify old data is deleted per policy
[ ] Test opt-out link works

8. Team training

Everyone handling data should know:

• What is PII?
• What can we send?
• How to spot PII before it reaches Adobe?
• Consequences of PII leak

---

Next: Labels, retention and the Privacy API