Under the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the right to the erasure of personal information is provided to individuals so that their data is removed from systems where it is no longer required. For detailed information on how all GDPR rights generally affect D2L's customers’ use of Brightspace, browse to: https://www.d2l.com/legal/gdpr/
To erase user data in Brightspace, the Data Purge tool is an option; however, using the tool impacts user data in Brightspace Data Sets.
What user data is deleted in Brightspace Data Sets?
You can create the following data set types in the Data Purge tool:
- Org Unit data set - Can contain course materials (such as Content), user activity (such as Discussions, Quizzes, Grades, Assignments, Checklist), and files in the course path. Note: The Course Files option does not include user contributed files (such as assignment submissions); you must select the User Contributed Files.
- User data set - Can contain profile information, activity log, emails, locker files, Assignments Turnitin data, user enrollment, and user collections.
- Instance data set - Can contain orphaned information and data that does not belong to categories in Org Unit data or User data. For example, orphaned questions in Question Library would belong to an Instance data set. To purge an instance, contact D2L Support.
Brightspace Data Sets are generated from the data in database tables. When an administrator uses the Data Purge tool to purge data and files from a user data set, that user data is removed from database tables. The next time Brightspace Data Sets are generated, the following data sets are updated to reflect changes to user data:
- Users Data Set - The user record is deleted.
- User Logins Data Set - All logins associated with the user are deleted.
- Session History Data Set - All session records associated with the user are deleted. However, if a user impersonates another user, then the created session is associated with the impersonated user and is not deleted. Once the user is deleted, then any sessions they created under impersonation cannot be traced back to them as the impersonating user.
- User Enrollments Data Set - All enrollment records associated with the user are deleted.
- Quiz Attempts and Survey Attempts Data Sets: IP addresses associated with quiz and survey attempts are anonymized.
What user data is anonymized in Brightspace Data Sets?
User data is not deleted from additional Brightspace Data Sets. Instead, the user data in those data sets is anonymized so that it can no longer be joined with a user data set to determine who the information belongs to. For example, a deleted user is anonymized in the Assignment Submissions Data Set and Quiz Attempts Data Set.
What should you do after deleting user data?
After deleting user data, D2L recommends that you update the data in your database by doing one of the following:
- Locating the deleted records (by comparing them with a weekly or daily full data set) and permanently deleting them.
- Overwriting the data in your database with full data sets.