PII Detection
What is PII Detection?
Section titled “What is PII Detection?”PII Detection scans free-text fields for personally identifiable information that shouldn’t be stored in those fields. It helps organizations comply with data privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA.
How It Works
Section titled “How It Works”The PII Detection strategy analyzes text content for patterns that match:
- Social Security Numbers (SSN) — numeric patterns like XXX-XX-XXXX
- Credit Card Numbers — 13–19 digit sequences matching card network patterns
- Email Addresses — in fields where email storage is not expected
- Phone Numbers — in free-text fields (not dedicated phone fields)
- National ID Numbers — country-specific patterns
Configuration
Section titled “Configuration”Detection Patterns
Section titled “Detection Patterns”The Defaults section provides three preset groups of detection patterns:
| Preset | Description |
|---|---|
| Standard | Core PII patterns — Social Security Number, Credit Card Number, Email Address, US Phone Number |
| Critical | High-risk financial and identity patterns |
| Extended | Full set including IP Address, IBAN, Date of Birth, International Phone, and more |
Each pattern shows its regex expression and can be individually enabled or disabled. You can also add your own patterns in the Add Custom Pattern section by entering a regex and a label.
Per-Field Overrides
Section titled “Per-Field Overrides”Click on a field in the Field Overrides table to open its configuration modal. You can select which detection patterns apply to that field — choose a preset or enable/disable individual patterns. The modal also lets you add custom patterns specific to that field. Use the Revert to Global link to reset.
Scoring
Section titled “Scoring”| Result | Score |
|---|---|
| No PII detected | 100 |
| Some PII found | Proportional to clean percentage |
| PII in all records | 0 |
| No data | 0 |
PII Regex Patterns
Section titled “PII Regex Patterns”DQS uses Java-compatible regular expressions to detect PII in free-text fields. See the Regex Tester for an interactive tester and a full library of PII patterns — including SSN, credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex), IBAN, passport numbers, PESEL, NIP, and more.
Use Cases
Section titled “Use Cases”- Audit Description and Notes fields for accidentally stored credit card numbers
- Monitor free-text fields for social security numbers
- Compliance reporting for data privacy regulations
- Pre-migration data cleansing