Forum Discussion
Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
Hi all, have a couple of questions about this type of data. When creating a dataset with hidden fields and tables, I am assuming they all get published to the service so that they can be used in calculations and all, correct? So although I do not have this, but say I have payroll data with a SSN as a unique identifier, and I use that to join to some tables, then mask that data the original SSN without the mask is in the service correct? If so, any way to get around this outside of securing the reports, data, workspaces?
5 Replies
Razorbx13 - Correct. You would want to transform that data coming into the system. You could do that in Power Query for example if using import mode.
Thanks Greg, so on my desktop I import an Employee file with SSN. I join that table to other imported tables with SSN into a merged table. My last applied step is removing that column all together or masking it as xxx-xx-xxxx. Then I hide the employee file and just publish the merged table. The hidden file has the SSN removed as the last step as well. What then is stored in the PowerBI service? IAm I just bringing it in at refresh time from a local database into the cloud and removing it? So the risk is in transport? Is there any documentation from Microsoft? Bottom line is my IT group has questions and I do not have answers.
you can also hide it in the acual PBIX report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-wvbJ49FT4
this is an example
So if you had a field in the table, I have found that when you Analyze in Excel, it shows. Am I doing something wrong? For now I want to ensure any remnants of the SSN is not stored anywhere on the PowerBI service. I know I can use the field in a calculation and remove it as my last applied step and then publish dataset, but when I refresh the dataset from the source it has to be moving from our on premises system, to the Service, then used in the calculation, then deleted. So it must reside there somehow during the refresh process and then "removed" right?
