GDPR data model: consent, Privacy Center and Shield
How to model GDPR privacy with the Individual and consent objects, erase or mask data with Privacy Center and Data 360 requests, find and classify personal data, and protect it with Shield Platform Encryption, sandbox masking and data minimization.
Given a customer scenario, recommend an approach for designing a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant data model. Discuss the various options to identify, classify, and protect personal and sensitive information.
~7 min read · 17 practice questions ·
What the exam expects
- Model privacy preferences and consent with the Individual and consent objects, choosing channel-level or address-level consent from the requirement.
- Recommend how erasure is honoured: a process acting on ShouldForget, a Privacy Center Right to Be Forgotten policy (delete or mask, child objects, archived history), or a Data 360 (formerly Data Cloud) request through the Consent API.
- Identify personal data with Data Detect, classify it, and map each tier to a real control.
- Protect data with Shield Platform Encryption and know what encryption does not do.
- Apply privacy by design: minimization, purpose limitation, masked or synthetic sandbox data, residency.
Key terms: Individual (privacy record linked to leads, contacts, person accounts and users); Contact Point Consent (consent for one address or number); Right to Be Forgotten policy (Privacy Center policy that deletes or masks a person's data); probabilistic encryption (strongest scheme, no filtering); data minimization (collect only what a stated purpose needs).
Key facts
- Detail
- Requires Data Protection and Privacy
- Detail
- A preference; you implement the process
- Detail
- Nulled unless added to the policy
- Detail
- FieldHistoryArchive copy remains
- Detail
- Consent API, source individual profiles
- Detail
- Doesn't hide or expose the field
- Detail
- Shield or Data Detect add-on
- Detail
- Not encrypted automatically
- Detail
- Read-only from December 31, 2026
Sources for this section (9)
- Individualdeveloper.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Consent Objectshelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- RTBF Policieshelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Field Audit Trailhelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Data Subject Rightshelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Data Classificationhelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Data Detecthelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Encryption Best Practiceshelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Data Mask Retirementhelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Why is setting ShouldForget alone not enough?
- When should a field use deterministic encryption?
- Which profile does a Data 360 deletion request target under identity resolution?
- Why can a field stay unencrypted after its policy is enabled?
The questions are free to read. Answers with their sources and self-grading are included with the pack.
Keep reading with the Platform Data Architect pack
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The pack includes:
- All 21 lessons of the Platform Data Architect guide, with reading progress
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- Inline practice questions and one-click topic practice (17 questions for this lesson)
- An official source cited for every claim
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