Custom Replacement Values for Anonymizing Data

The Anonymization Template anonymizes potentially sensitive data by replacing records with values from a library of alternative, yet representational options for each field. We also provide the option to customize replacement values to comply with any regulation or testing prerequisites.

Using the Custom option, you can define and control the formula for generating replacement values.

NOTE: The Custom option is only relevant for the following field types:

URL
Email
Phone
Number (Decimal, Double, Int)
Currency
Percent
Text (String, Text Area)
Data

For Example:

Create an EMAIL ADDRESS with a specific format, e.g.: user001@SANDBOX.com - user999@SANDBOX.com, you can create the pattern:

Creating a Pattern

There are four categories of value types: Library, List, Free Text and Number Range. Think of these categories as “building blocks” that can be used on their own, combined with other “building blocks”, or used multiple times to create the desired pattern.

From the Replace with drop-down list, select Custom. The dialog box appears. Click to select the block you need. Using the multiple selection option you can also create the same custom pattern across multiple fields.

Library

These are the same values available outside the custom option, that can also be used to build your customized pattern.
Combine "Library" blocks with other blocks (e.g. List, Free Text, Number Range) to create the desired pattern. For example, to verify the generation of 1.5M unique value:

List

When adding values, enter a value and click outside the box to save the configuration.
You can paste multiple comma separated values from a CSV/Excel or text file.
When using the List option, Anonymize will randomly pull from the indicated values in the list.

Free Text

Free text can be used as a unique value for all records or as part of the custom pattern.
Combine with other building blocks. For example, to generate emails with the domain: “@example.com” use the pattern:

Number Range

Random option: Randomly generate numbers within a defined number range. For example: If the starting number is 1 and ending number is 5, the random numbers are: 3,1,5,4,2
Trailing numbers: Consecutively generated numbers within the defined range. For example: If the starting number is 1 and ending number is 5, the trailing numbers are: 1,2,3,4,5
Negative numbers are permitted.
Leading zeros: All generated numbers will have the same number of characters as the maximum number. For example, to create a 4 digit value between 1-1000, check the Leading Zero option to generate: 0001,0002,0003…0999, 1000 instead of 1,2,3…999,1000.

Multiple Selection - Custom Option

You can select multiple fields, of the same type, and set a single custom value across all fields.

NOTE: If the generated pattern, for a single field, is longer than the maximum number of characters allowed, the value will be truncated accordingly for that field.

When you select more than one field, a dialog box appears showing the number of fields selected, field type and the replacement options. From the Replace with drop-down list, select Custom, and click the + button to select the building blocks you need and begin building your anonymization pattern.

Best Practices:

Support UNIQUE values
- With the Custom option you can concatenate numbers to your anonymized value using "Free Text" and "Number" building blocks to prevent duplication. For example, to generate 1M unique names, create the pattern:

To build a number pattern with unique values, when creating a pattern with multiple number ranges, to generate the greatest number of unique values, select the “random” option in all ranges.

To build a DATE pattern, the date format is: YYYY-MM-DD. For example, generating a birthdate for people under the age of 20, create the following pattern using three "Number Range" blocks with a "Free Text" block between each value for the year, month and date:

Examples:

Creating a PHONE number with the prefix: 1-800-xxx-xxx, create the pattern:

To add a SUFFIX to the user name, create the pattern:

Set FIXED TEXT for all records, for example to have all records in a certain field display the value: “One value for all”, create the pattern:

To generate a certain SIN type format for example xxx xxx xxx, create the pattern:

To generate a DATE within a specific time period, the date format that should be used is: YYYY-MM-DD. For example during Q1 in the year 2022, create the pattern:

Notes:

For numbers, phone numbers, URL, and email addresses, spaces are automatically removed from the generated values.
The field character maximum permitted in Salesforce is displayed in the dialog. If the generated pattern exceeds the field maximum the value will be trimmed to the maximum permitted.
When creating email/URLs, make sure the patterns are valid, we do not validate the generated result for email addresses and/or URL formats.