Personal Data

Suite
Customer Experience Employee Experience Strategy & Research
Product
Qualtrics
What's on this page

About the Personal Data Feature

Privacy laws such as GDPR at times require you to delete personal data when requested to do so. Within Qualtrics, personal data can be stored in a few different places, such as contacts, directories, survey responses, tickets, user accounts, and so on. You can locate data for an individual or a group of individuals by searching for their email address, and then delete this information as needed. You can also export survey responses linked to an email / multiple email addresses in a JSON file format.

To get started, go to Admin, select Data Privacy, and make sure you are in the Personal Data section.

Choosing admin from the top-level navigation in the top-left of every page of the website
Choosing admin from the top-level navigation in the top-left of every page of the website

data privacy and personal data tabs
data privacy and personal data tabs

Records that can be located and / or deleted by email address include the number of:

Qtip: Brand Administrators have access to this feature, but Division Administrators do not.
Qtip: This tool does not delete responses in progress in the offline app, entire surveys, or SFTP server data. It also does not refresh Stats iQ data (although it does remove the data so that when Stats iQ is refreshed, the data will be gone). See the Qualtrics & GDPR Compliance support page for instructions on removing the listed data.
Attention: This tool only catches records that are clearly connected to a contact in the XM Directory (or contacts if you do not have XM Directory). This means, for example, if an email was typed into a text entry question asking for email address in a survey distributed via anonymous link, that survey response will not be deleted by the deletion request, since the response is not distributed using a contact list. In this scenario, you’d want to filter your data by the text entry question, and then delete the response.

Show a Summary of All Records Associated with an Email

You can search all personal information linked to a certain email address. This summary allows you to locate records and figure out how much data in your Qualtrics brand is related to an email address before you perform a deletion.

Qtip: This search only shows the distributions (and and associated records) for emails that were specifically sent to the entered email address. A distribution can be sent to multiple contacts at the same time, but the recipient must have been entered manually for the record to appear in this search.
Click Add a request.
Add a request button, top of personal data section
Add a request button, top of personal data section
Type an email in the field.
Large box where you can type one email address. Below that, multiple choice, first option is to show a summary. Then two buttons. Blue Process button is the second
Large box where you can type one email address. Below that, multiple choice, first option is to show a summary. Then two buttons. Blue Process button is the second
Qtip: Or, click multiple email addresses to find the survey responses associated with multiple people. Make sure your spreadsheet of email addresses fits the following requirements:
When multiple email addresses is clicked, you can upload a file instead
When multiple email addresses is clicked, you can upload a file instead
  • One column named email
  • No more than 500 email addresses
  • Saved as a CSV in UTF-8 format
Click Show a summary of the data.
Click Process.
Read the message. The system will begin working on your request. Click the back button or Review Past Requests.
Thank you message explaining you may need to wait
Thank you message explaining you may need to wait
Qtip: You can also start a new request, or navigate elsewhere in the product while your request is processed. You may need to disable your ad blocker to view the review past requests summary.
When your request is finished loading, you will be given the Transaction ID of your request.
Transaction ID column with ID that starts with OP
Transaction ID column with ID that starts with OP
Click the header of the entry matching the ID to expand it.
 Qtip: The request may be Pending or In Progress. It is okay to leave the page and work on other things while the system searches your brand’s records.
The entry will tell you how many responses, contacts, tickets, and/or users with that email were found in the brand.
Qtip: The email addresses you searched are excluded from this entry to maintain your privacy from other Brand Administrators. Only email addresses we could not find in your system will be listed.

Deleting All Records Associated with an Email

Warning: Once these records are deleted, they cannot be retrieved. Do not delete records unless you are absolutely sure.
Click Add a request.
Add a request button, top of personal data section
Add a request button, top of personal data section
Type an email in the field.
Large box where you can type one email address. Below that, multiple choice, first option is to show a summary. Then a field where you are asked to type delete. Then two buttons. Blue Process button is the second.
Large box where you can type one email address. Below that, multiple choice, first option is to show a summary. Then a field where you are asked to type delete. Then two buttons. Blue Process button is the second.
Qtip: Or, click multiple email addresses to find the survey responses associated with multiple people. Make sure your spreadsheet of email addresses fits the following requirements:
When multiple email addresses is clicked, you can upload a file instead
When multiple email addresses is clicked, you can upload a file instead
  • One column named email
  • No more than 500 email addresses
  • Saved as a CSV in UTF-8 format
Click Delete all data.
Type delete in the field.
Click Process to confirm.
Read the message. The system will begin working on your request. Click the back button or Review Past Requests.
Thank you message explaining you may need to wait
Thank you message explaining you may need to wait
Qtip: You can also start a new request, or navigate elsewhere in the product while your request is processed.
When your request is finished loading, you will be given the Transaction ID of your request.
Transaction ID column with ID that starts with OP
Transaction ID column with ID that starts with OP
Qtip: The request may be Pending or In Progress. It is okay to leave the page and work on other things while the system searches your brand’s records.
The entry will tell you how many responses, contacts, tickets, and/or users with that email were deleted from the brand.
Qtip: The email addresses you searched are excluded from this entry to maintain your privacy from other Brand Administrators and to truly erase all records of that email. Only email addresses we could not find in your system will be listed. This information will be maintained for 60 days, after which we will erase any record of these emails.

Creating a Downloadable JSON File

You can export all the survey responses associated with an email / multiple email addresses in a JSON file format. This file can be imported into other programs that accept JSON files, such as Intuit.

This export is only available in JSON format. To export data in other formats, please export data directly from individual surveys instead.

Example: This is what the JSON export looks like when opened in a text editor.

A file where all the text runs together. Fields are listed in a JSON format with brackets, so that you can only divine the fields and their values by paying attention to comma separation and bracket closure
A file where all the text runs together. Fields are listed in a JSON format with brackets, so that you can only divine the fields and their values by paying attention to comma separation and bracket closure
Click Add a request.
Add a request button, top of personal data section
Add a request button, top of personal data section
Type an email in the field.
Large box where you can type one email address. Below that, multiple choice, first option is to show a summary. Then two buttons. Blue Process button is the second
Large box where you can type one email address. Below that, multiple choice, first option is to show a summary. Then two buttons. Blue Process button is the second
Qtip: Or, click multiple email addresses to find the survey responses associated with multiple people. Make sure your spreadsheet of email addresses fits the following requirements:
When multiple email addresses is clicked, you can upload a file instead
When multiple email addresses is clicked, you can upload a file instead
  • One column named email
  • No more than 500 email addresses
  • Saved as a CSV in UTF-8 format
Click Create a downloadable file.
Click Process.
Read the message. The system will begin working on your request. Click the back button or Review Past Requests.
Thank you message explaining you may need to wait
Thank you message explaining you may need to wait
Qtip: You can also start a new request, or navigate elsewhere in the product while your request is processed.
When the file is ready, there will be a blue Download link on the right. Click this to download the file.
Download button on far-right of a file request
Download button on far-right of a file request
 Qtip: The request may be Pending or In Progress. It is okay to leave the page and work on other things while the system searches your brand’s records.
 Qtip: The file will be zipped when you first download it. Click to unzip it before uploading it into another program.

Preparing a File with Multiple Emails

You can search for, delete, or download records associated with multiple email addresses using a CSV. This section goes over how to format and upload a list of email addresses for this purpose.

In Excel or a similar program, create a new file.
Create a column with the header email. List the emails you want to search/delete/download responses for underneath.
.CSV file with an email header and a list of emails underneath
.CSV file with an email header and a list of emails underneath
Qtip: You cannot list more than 500 email addresses.
Save the file as a CSV that is UTF-8 encoded.
Navigate to Data Privacy.
Add a request button, top of personal data section
Add a request button, top of personal data section
Click Add a request.
Click the blue text that says multiple email addresses.
Multiple email addresses
Multiple email addresses
Click Select a file and upload the CSV you just made.
Select a file button
Select a file button
Qtip: To remove this file so you can add a new one instead (e.g., you selected the wrong file name), click the minus sign ( – ) next to the file name.
Select the function you want to perform:
  • Show a summary of the data: Search all personal information linked to the email addresses. This summary allows you to locate records and figure out how much data in your Qualtrics brand is related to an email address before you perform a deletion.
  • Create a downloadable data file: Export all the survey responses associated with the email addresses in a JSON file format. This file can be imported into other programs that accept JSON files
  • Delete all data: Delete all personal information stored in the Qualtrics brand that is linked to the email addresses.
Click Process.

Past Requests

Although the emails searched are always excluded to comply with privacy and deletion demands, there are records of all past deletions and searches. This allows you to keep track of who is searching or deleting these records. The user’s name (not email or username) is in the Requested By column.

A list of past requests with times and IDs
A list of past requests with times and IDs

The Status column gives a quick view of whether it was a search (Completed Search) or a deletion (Complete). Click the header to get more details on the transaction.

All Brand Administrators will be able to export any downloadable files that have been prepared.

All records of past searches, deletions, and downloads are permanently removed from this list after 60 days.

Qtip: The email addresses you searched are excluded from these entries to maintain your privacy from other Brand Administrators. Only email addresses we could not find in your system will be listed.

FAQs

Do I need to purchase XM Directory to use the "Right to Erasure" tool?

Do I have to purchase access to the "Right to Erasure" tool?

Does "Right to Erasure" deletion remove the entire response, or just personal data from the response?

Are the features on the "Right to Erasure" tool also available from the Qualtrics API?

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