Database Anonymization

Anonymize personal data (PII) in WordPress databases for development and testing. Comply with rules and regulations, prevent data leaks.

WordPress databases are often copied from production to test and development environments. This leads to a representative dataset for development and testing.
However, most production databases contain Personal Identifiable Information, so you need to have effective security controls in place to comply with rules and regulations such as EU GDPR.

This plugin contributes to compliancy and supports data leak prevention originating from non-production installations, while retaining the WordPress database structure and integrity.

• It transforms PII to anonymous data using customizable rules, with each rule creating a step of the data transformation.
• By retaining the data structure (in most cases), the anonymization will usually not break functionality and keep the data set sufficiently representative.
• You can anonymize many data types using a wide range of transformations (listed below).
• It comes with a built-in ruleset for default WordPress installs to get you off the ground.
• You can add, change and delete rules to make the anonymization work as you see fit.
• It provides powerful options to anonymize any column in any WordPress database table, supporting all plugins that use the database to store personal data.
• It can target specific PII hidden in meta database tables such as WP options.
• It can handle serialized data stored in database records.
• It can handle JSON data stored in database records.

You can create rules to skip specific records that contain PII of admins, developers and testers. This prevents locking yourself out of WordPress and ensures that you and test users can perform their tasks while personal data from customers and other users is anonymized.

Optionally you can create a temporary back-up, so you can inspect the transformation results before finalizing the anonymization.

You will find this plugin in the Tools menu of WordPress.

Supported data types

All types of personal data are supported with all-purpose transformations.

There are special transformations for the following data types:

• email address
• person name
• nickname
• nicename (WordPress specific data type)
• phone number
• age
• birthdate
• IBAN
• street address
• city
• URL
• IP address
• HTTP agent

All-purpose transformations

• One string
  Fills a table column with a character string as defined by you, the same for all records.
• Empty
  Fills a table column with empty values for all records.
• Random characters
  Fills a table column with different random characters per record.
• Random digits
  Fills a table column with different random digits per record.
• Random pattern
  Fills a table column with different random digits or characters per record according to a pattern. Example: ###-aa/# generates 123-fj/4.
• Lorem ipsum
  Fills a table column with a lorem ipsum text fragment.

Special transformations

These transformations are crafted for specific data types and create different values per record.

• Random fake email address
  Generates an address like [name]@[domain].[extension] using a predefined list for fake domains and extensions and random characters for the name.
• Copy user_email
  Copies the corresponding value of user_email in the WP users table. Requires that user_email has been anonymized in a previous step.
  This transformation helps to keep related records in separate tables consistent.
• Derive user_nicename from user_email
  Derives the value for the column user_nicename from the column user_email in the WP users table. Requires that user_email has been anonymized in a previous step.
  This transformation keeps those related columns in the WP users table consistent.
• Random full name
  Generate a full name combining random selections from predefined lists for first and last name.
• Copy names from WP usermeta table
  Generates a full name combining first name and last name copied from the WP usermeta table. Requires that those columns in the WP usermeta table have been anonymized in a previous step.
  This transformation helps to keep related records in separate tables consistent.
• Random nickname
  Generates a nickname using a random selection from a predefined lists combined with random characters.
• Random first name
  Randomly selects a first name from a predefined list.
• Random last name
  Randomly selects a last name from a predefined list.
• Random phone number
  Generates random digits combined with predefined characters and digits. Example: +1 ##-####-#### (###) generates +1 59-6291-5282 (302).
• Random_age
  Generates a random age with a specified minimum and maximum.
• Random birthdate
  Generates a random birthdate derived from a random age with a specified minimum and maximum.
• Random IBAN
  Randomly selects a non-existing International Bank Account Number from a predefined list. The format and checksum are valid.
• Random street name
  Randomly selects a street name from a predefined list.
• Random street name and house number
  Randomly selects a street name from a predefined list and combines this with a street number using a specified pattern. Example: ###-a s generates 627-d Fake Street.
• Random city list
  Randomly selects a city name from a predefined list.
• Random URL
  Generates a URL like https://www.[domain].[extension]/[path] using a predefined list for fake domains and extensions and random characters for the path.
• Random IP address
  Generates a random IP address in the so called local range from 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255.
• Random HTTP agent string
  Randomly selects an agent string from a predefined list of fake entries.
• Empty array values
  Sets an empty string for all values in a serialized or JSON array stored in database records.
• One array value
  Sets one specific string for all values in a serialized or JSON array stored in database records.