The comment anonymization API

Automatically hide the personal data present in verbatims to ensure GDPR compliance and secure the exploitation of data on the platform.

Anonymize the comments from your surveys, review platforms, and integrated social networks. This tool allows you to modulate access to sensitive data to perfectly meet your compliance challenges.

Indeed, an open-ended question or a text field is not always intended to collect personal data. It is therefore sometimes necessary not to distort the analyses with information likely to be at risk (contact details, insulting remarks, etc.).

Requirements

• Collect verbatims in at least one comment, from a satisfaction survey, a social network, or a review platform

Overview

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The Comment Anonymization API is an optional feature specifically designed to automatically replace personal data or unwanted words identified in comments with generic terms. Intervening directly in the data flow, it prevents sensitive data from transiting through the platform.

The benefits of the comment anonymization API:

• Automated GDPR compliance: Ensure compliance with regulations by instantly removing any personally identifiable data from your comment flows, without them being stored in the platform
• Privacy protection: Guarantee respondent anonymity by systematically masking the names, first names, addresses, and phone numbers they cite in their answers, while having the possibility to display only anonymous metadata
• Data minimization: Respect the principle of "minimization" by keeping only the meaning of the comment, without the superfluous and risky data
• E-reputation control: Maintain a professional and benevolent exchange space by automatically neutralizing insults and unwanted words
• Data security: Drastically reduce the legal risks related to the processing and storage of sensitive data while limiting your users' access to sensitive data on the platform
• Operational time saving: Lighten the workload of your moderation teams by automating the cleaning of raw texts
• Reliable statistical analyses: Secure access to risk data without compromising statistical analyses
• Risk-free sharing: Exploit or transmit your comment databases to third parties for analysis without compromising user confidentiality

The automatic anonymization process applies the following transformations to the comments:

The algorithm automatically detects and replaces sensitive data present in the content of a comment. By activating this option, all words collected in the comments will automatically be normalized to lowercase and without accents. Case and accents will therefore be ignored to facilitate the consolidation of responses: "SMITH", "Smith", and "smith" will be considered as a single word.

While most elements are identified using regular expressions, the detection of first and last names relies on a library of common surnames in France.

Activate the comment anonymization API

The comment anonymization API is offered as an option if you already collect comments from your surveys, review platforms, and/or social networks integrated into the platform.

We invite you to contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to subscribe to this option and proceed with its activation.

FAQ

• What is the timeframe for the anonymization of sensitive data in comments?

The anonymization is almost immediate: the process runs automatically every 5 minutes. It processes all comments received over the last 3 hours. This timeframe allows for the integration of any eventual modification made to a feedback within a survey that is still online.

• Is it possible to retrieve the original message if the anonymization mistakenly masked information?

No, the processing is irreversible. Indeed, the API intervenes directly on the flow, as soon as the feedback is submitted. The original comment containing the sensitive data is therefore never stored in the platform's database.

• Does the activation of this option apply retroactively to comments already stored in the platform?

No, the comment anonymization API intervenes following a feedback. It therefore processes new comments at the time of their arrival. Verbatims collected before the activation of the option will therefore not be anonymized.

History recovery is possible upon request. We invite you to contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to study the feasibility of this service, which is subject to specific pricing.

• Is it possible to exclude a specific survey from the anonymization process?

Not currently, but this customization will soon be available.

Currently, anonymization applies to the entire data flow. However, a future update will bring the necessary flexibility to exclude certain sources from processing by the API. You will thus be able to choose not to mask certain data on specific perimeters, whether globally or for certain types of terms.

Example: Do not mask the first and last names of comments from a specific satisfaction survey to facilitate customer callbacks, while systematically anonymizing comments from other data sources.

• Does the algorithm also allow masking the names of brands or companies cited (competitors, partners)?

By default, the API targets personal data and insulting remarks based on predefined settings.

However, the processing by the tool is customizable. Upon request, we can adapt the filtering to your specific challenges (competitors, industry jargon, etc.). By providing us with an exhaustive list of terms to mask, we can enrich the library so that it also masks these elements.

• How to verify that comment anonymization is active?

From the "Comments" tab, simply use the search bar to find the generic terms that replace the anonymized terms.

For further assistance or to report a specific issue, please contact our Support team.