Access and erasure requests
When a visitor or customer asks for their data, or asks you to erase it, answer within one month. Whence finds everything it holds about that person in the store you are viewing, gives it to you as a file, and erases it on request.
Open Settings > Privacy requests. You need the Customer data right.
Requests from Shopify arrive on their own
When one of your customers asks Shopify for their data, the request appears in the Privacy requests list without you doing anything. Each request shows:
- the person (their email, phone, visitor ID or order numbers),
- its type: Access or Erasure,
- where it came from: “From Shopify, Sep 3” or “Added by you, Sep 3”,
- its deadline, one calendar month after it arrived: “Due in 12 days”, “Due today”, or “Overdue by 2 days” in red.
On an open request, use Export JSON or Export CSV to download the person’s data, Erase to delete it, or Mark as done if you already answered elsewhere. The request then shows “Data sent”, “Erased” or “Done”, with the date.
When Shopify asks for a customer’s data to be erased, Whence erases it automatically and adds a request marked Erased, without anything that identifies the person, so you can see what was asked and done.
A request made by email
Step 1: Find the person
Under Find a person, fill in one field and click Search: Email, Phone, First name and Last name (a name needs both), Visitor ID (from the visitor profile) or Order number.
Step 2: Read what Whence holds
Whence answers in numbers, one per kind of data: “Whence holds 4 visits, 38 recording parts, 2 checkout events, 1 order, 1 contact record, 0 AI summaries…”, down to the consent records. If it holds nothing: “Whence holds nothing about this person in this store. If they asked for their data, you can tell them so.”
Step 3: Download the file
Click Download JSON or Download CSV, then send the file to the person who asked. The request is added to the list as “Added by you”.
Step 4: Add the recordings, if needed
The file lists the recordings; their content comes as a separate file, one per visitor ID. Click Prepare recordings, wait for “Preparing…”, then Download recordings. For a large recording, you may see “Still preparing. Come back in a few minutes.”
The file covers visits, recordings, checkout events, orders, contacts, AI summaries, ad clicks, sales sent to ad and email platforms, and consent records.
Erase a person
Click Erase this person (or Erase on a request). Whence first tells you what will go: “This deletes 4 visits, 38 recording parts, … for this person in this store. Orders stay in your figures, without anything that identifies them.”
Click Erase for good to confirm. Whence then shows what it did: “Erased: 4 visits and their recordings, 1 order made anonymous, 1 contact record removed.”
Erasing cannot be undone, and it removes the data from Whence only. Data already sent to ad or email platforms must be erased with each platform. Deleting a person in Whence does not delete their Shopify customer either.
If a large erasure runs out of time, you see “The erasure is taking longer than expected. Run it again: it continues where it stopped.”
Good to know
- Everything happens in the store you are viewing. The same email in another of your stores is a separate person there.
- Each export and each erasure leaves a line in your audit log, with numbers only, never an email or phone number.
- Requests are kept for 365 days.
- After you cancel, your data stays 30 days before it is deleted, and the tool stays available during that time.