Customers sometimes enter sensitive information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, passwords, attachments. or other sensitive information in tickets when they shouldn't. In addition to being visible to anybody with access to the ticket, the sensitive information automatically gets stored in a database with the rest of the ticket.
This article contains the following sections:
About ticket redaction
Admins and agents in custom roles with permission can redact, or remove, sensitive information found in ticket comments and attachments so that your account stays secure and compliant. This helps keep confidential information out of Zendesk. On plans without custom roles, agents with permission to delete tickets can also redact.
- In the standard agent interface, you can use the Ticket Redaction app to redact personal data in ticket conversations. To download, install, and use the app, see Ticket Redaction app in Zendesk Marketplace.
- In the Zendesk Agent Workspace, you can use native ticket redaction to redact personal data. You don’t need to install a separate app. This article describes how native ticket redaction works.
Native ticket redaction works on:
- Side conversation emails, child tickets, and Microsoft Teams messages
- Social messaging channels enabled through Sunshine Conversations
- Web and mobile messaging
- Ended chat conversations from the Agent Workspace
- Public comments
- Internal notes
- Images (attached and inline)
- Attachments (with some limitations)
- Content in archived or closed tickets for email, API, and webform channels
- Tickets created through the Sunshine Conversations SDK.
Ticket redaction does not currently support redaction of entire tickets. Also, Zendesk recommends redacting content before merging tickets. If you redact content in the original ticket after it has been merged with another ticket, the redacted content will be removed from the original ticket, but not from the merged ticket.
If you redact a Zendesk message or a message created via the Sunshine Conversations SDK, the Support ticket interface shows the redacted areas of the messaging conversation, all within the context of the unredacted content. From the customer side, the entire message is deleted.
Redaction events are noted in a ticket’s event log so customers can be aware data has been deleted. In addition, when you redact ticket content, a redacted_content tag is automatically added to the ticket. When you redact ticket content, this causes an update to be made on the ticket using the same channel associated with the content that was redacted. For example, redacting a WhatsApp comment from a ticket. This behavior can cause triggers to fire if your trigger conditions are set to look for updates on a specific channel.
Ticket redaction limitations
- Messages in an active messaging conversation or chat
- Messages stored in the Answer Bot service
- Channel framework-enabled tickets
- Tickets created from Mobile SDK
- Tickets created from Slack Business Connect
- Slack side conversations
Additional limitations include:
- Redaction for messaging tickets does not work for messages created before April 2022. If the ticket contains sensitive information, the tickets will have to be permanently deleted.
- When you redact a ticket comment sent from an email channel, Zendesk does not redact the content of the original email.
- When redacting a ticket, the underlying conversation is not edited on the social messaging platform and third-party integrations. It is redacted only within Zendesk-controlled systems. This also means that an end user, depending on how they communicate with your agent, may still see unredacted content themselves when accessing a message through different channels. For example, in Facebook Messenger or a 3rd-party Chat bot.
- Redaction of messages exchanged between Answer Bot and end users is not supported.
- If triggers are configured prior to redaction taking place, redacted content may persist in the channels launched by these triggers. For example, email conversations.
- Ticket redaction for the Chat history may not be instantaneous and may be delayed by up to 10 minutes due to database replication.
- Bulk redaction is not supported.
Redacting ticket content
To redact ticket content
- Open a ticket and scroll to the conversation thread that contains the content you want
to redact.
You can only redact content in one thread at a time.
- Hover your mouse over the thread to display the options menu icon (
). - Click the options menu icon () and choose Redact.
A redaction pane appears.
- Select the content you want to redact, then click Mark for redaction.
The content you want to redact is highlighted.
- Continue to select content to redact and Mark it for redaction.
You can include multiple text strings, attachments, and images as part of the same redaction.
If you mark something for redaction by mistake, click the content and select Unmark for redaction.
- When you’ve finished selecting the content you want to redact, click Redact.
The ticket is updated with the redacted content. Ticket redaction is not reversible.
When you redact ticket content, a redacted_content tag is automatically added to the ticket. You can search for this tag to get a list of redacted tickets.
Redacting ticket content in side conversations
You can also redact content in email, child ticket, and Microsoft Teams side conversations in both the Agent Workspace and the standard agent interface.
When you redact content, keep in mind that the redaction is only taking place on the side conversation. Content isn't redacted on the external channels on which it was delivered. Once an email or Microsoft Teams message is sent, it can’t be redacted.
Side conversation redaction in the Agent Workspace:
Side conversation redaction in the standard agent interface:
75 Comments
Would really love it if redaction worked after a merge.
Hello,
I have a problem with redacting text. After selecting the text to redact, an error message comes out (see below) . the message is written in italian, but the meaning is about "redacting doesn't work, wait for few munutes and retry" but it does'nt work anyway.
can you help me , please?
I raised a ticket for this same issue at least a week ago and am awaiting a response from Zendesk Advocacy. I did another test yesterday, and I was able to redact text from an end user comment but not an agent comment on a ticket.
I can see that one of our colleagues is already helping you regarding this incident. Rest assured that we'll do our best to help you with your concern!
When we redact text from a completed chat, we've noticed that it's still present in the transcript if you access it in the Zendesk Chat interface. Is that intended behavior? If we really want to redact from chats, do we need to do it in both interfaces?
It is possible to redact Credit Card information in both the Ticket and Chat history, but I am afraid it is limited to that at this time. The other information is able to be redacted from the Ticket, but it would be retained within the Transcript of the Chat History. The only other option would be the ability to delete the cha from the history, or specific attachments from the Chat.
To enable the Credit Card Piece please refer to the below article.
Hiding-credit-card-numbers-in-chats-and-chat-history
To delte Chat Histories and Attachments:
Permanently-deleting-chats-and-attachments
Thanks!
Allowing agents to delete tickets should be a separate permission. This is very disappointing.
It looks like you can not redact the merged message "Request X was closed and merged into this request" If that message has info or attachments that needs redaction, it can not be done.
The three dots "additional actions" menu does not show up for this merged message.
Thus the redaction app is still needed.
With ticket redaction, how do you redact the recorded call?
Hi Myron,
Click the trash can icon next to the recording, then confirm the deletion. This feature was available even before ticket redaction.
Created a new Feedback item for the request in multiple comments to separate the redaction and delete ticket permissions: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4574626017050-Separate-Permissions-for-Deleting-and-Redacting-Tickets
I wish this feature would redact the 'ticket subject' too.
Some of our customers also enter personal information in the subject line.
Hey folks!
Thank you for all this great feedback on redacting subject lines and content within the conversations.
We will make sure the team reviews this, and any updates get put here!
I've just tried redacting the attachment of a closed ticket using this API endpoint but got an error back: "Cannot redact an attachment on a closed or archived ticket"
I thought redacting closed tickets is possible now once you enable Agent Workspace?
The API endpoint you are using is limited to tickets with status less than closed. If you want to redact details on a Closed ticket you'll need to access it directly on the Support UI.
Are you guys planning to align the API with the UI functionality and allow the redacting on closed tickets using that (or another) endpoint?
Hi, is there a date when ticket redaction in the Agent Workspace be relaunched in messaging and Sunshine conversation tickets and can we have an option in the meantime?
We are not being compliant to internal privacy regulations due to the lack of ability to remove PII.
I would love it for some of my agents or team leads to be able to redact ticket info, however they should not have the ability to delete a ticket. Is there a way we can have redaction permissions not tied to ticket deletion??
I hope all is well. Unfortunately, the ability to redact for agents is only possible by enabling agents to delete a ticket.
Thanks!
Is there a way to remove the "View Original Email" option in Zendesk? Redacting text only to allow agents to view the redacted content in the original email from the ticket is concerning and goes against the primary intent behind this redaction tool I would think.
I agree with Jake Warren as the purpose of redaction is to remove details that no one should have access to - and it should not even be in the original. Imagine Credit card info being viewable/accessible within the original email
Still no changes to the permissions, we can't have agents deleting tickets but we also don't want to have admins deal with every request to redact tickets.
Add the many, many times that I'm not able to redact due to an error, the redaction app is still superior. Which blows my mind.
For those who are looking a way to automatically redacting sensitive data from Zendesk tickets, please checkout Strac.
Strac automatically detects and redacts sensitive information like SSN, Drivers License, Passport, Identity Documents, Bank Numbers, Credit Cards, and any thing sensitive across zendesk comments. It also works with images, screenshots and any attachments, You can check out here: https://www.strac.io/integrations/zendesk for more details.
Are there any updates regarding being able to redact information/attachments from side conversations?
Hi Grant,
Redaction in side conversations is under development, but there isn't an official release date, yet.
Great, thank you for the update Lisa!
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