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Delete records

Use the Data Lifecycle workspace to delete records in Adobe Experience Platform based on their primary identities. These records can be tied to individual consumers or any other entity that is included in the identity graph.

Prerequisites

Deleting records requires a working understanding of how identity fields function in Experience Platform. Specifically, you must know the identity namespace values of the entities whose records you want to delete, depending on the dataset (or datasets) you are deleting them from.

Refer to the following documentation for more information on identities in Platform:

• Adobe Experience Platform Identity Service: Bridges identities across devices and systems, linking datasets together based on the identity fields defined by the XDM schemas they conform to.
• Identity namespaces: Identity namespaces define the different types of identity information that can relate to a single person, and are a required component for each identity field.
• Real-Time Customer Profile: Uses identity graphs to provide unified consumer profiles based on aggregated data from multiple sources, updated in near-real-time.
• Experience Data Model (XDM): Provides standard definitions and structures for Platform data through the use of schemas. All Platform datasets conform to a specific XDM schema, and the schema defines which fields are identities.
• Identity fields: Learn how an identity field is defined in an XDM schema.

Create a request

To start the process, select Data Lifecycle in the left navigation of the Platform UI. The Data lifecycle requests workspace appears. Next, select Create request from the main page in the workspace.

The request creation workflow appears. By default, the Delete record option is selected under the Requested Action section. Leave this option selected.

Select datasets

The next step is to determine whether you want to delete records from a single dataset or all datasets. If this option is not available to you, continue to the Provide identities section of the guide.

Under the Record Details section, use the radio button to select between a specific dataset and all datasets. If you choose Select dataset, proceed to select the database icon () to open a dialog that provides a list of available datasets. Select the desired dataset from the list followed by Done.

If you want to delete records from all datasets, select All datasets.

Provide identities

When deleting records, you must provide identity information so the system can determine which records are to be deleted. For any dataset in Platform, records are deleted based on the identity namespace field that is defined by the dataset’s schema.

Like all identity fields in Platform, an identity namespace is composed of two things: a type (sometimes referred to as an identity namespace) and a value. The identity type provides context as to how the field identifies a record (such as an email address). The value represents a record’s specific identity for that type (for example, jdoe@example.com for the email identity type). Common fields used as identities include account information, device IDs, and cookie IDs.

If you are deleting records from a single dataset, all the identities you provide must have the same type, since a dataset can only have one identity namespace. If you are deleting from all datasets, you can include multiple identity types since different datasets may have different primary identities.

There are two options to provide identities when deleting records:

• Upload a JSON file
• Enter primary identity values manually

Upload a JSON file

To upload a JSON file, you can drag and drop the file into the provided area, or select Choose files to browse and select from your local directory.

The JSON file must be formatted as an array of objects, each object representing an identity.

[
  {
    "namespaceCode": "email",
    "value": "jdoe@example.com"
  },
  {
    "namespaceCode": "email",
    "value": "san.gray@example.com"
  }
]

Once the file is uploaded, you can continue to submit the request.

Manually enter identities

To enter identities manually, select Add identity.

Controls appear that allow you to enter identities one at a time. Under identity namespace, use the dropdown menu to select the identity type. Under Primary Identity Value, provide the identity namespace value for the record.

To add more identities, select the plus icon () next to one of the rows, or select Add identity.

Submit the request

Once you have finished adding identities to the request, under Request settings, provide a name and optional description for the request before selecting Submit.

A Confirm request dialog appears to indicate that the identities cannot be recovered once deleted. Select Submit to confirm the list of identities whose data you want to delete.

After the request is submitted, a work order is created and appears on the Record tab of the Data Lifecycle workspace. From here, you can monitor the work order’s status as it processes the request.

Next steps

This document covered how to delete records in the Experience Platform UI. For information on how to perform other data lifecycle management tasks in the UI, refer to the Data Lifecycle UI overview.

To learn how to delete records using the Data Hygiene API, refer to the work order endpoint guide.