---
schema_version: "1"
id: e333eaa8bd2f0bbf7c52e47a60ddccbf0167d1514b321655d88634a14125c7a2
title: Data Deletion for Marketing Cloud
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/xcloud/264-0-0/data_deletion_marketing.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=xcloud.data_deletion_marketing.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 991901f521456a714d077f35daf8ad0651b2df3bee2007feebf29f0bfc8ee800
description: Delete customers’ personal data when it’s necessary to comply with various data protection and privacy regulations. We give you examples of common requests and things to consider. That way, you can determine a plan of action for complying with the regulations that apply to you.
products:
  - Security
  - Cross Cloud
release: "264"
---
# Data Deletion for Marketing Cloud

Delete customers’ personal data when it’s necessary to comply with various data protection and privacy regulations. We give you examples of common requests and things to consider. That way, you can determine a plan of action for complying with the regulations that apply to you.

Many data protection and privacy regulations can require you to delete customers’ personal data when customers request it, or when it’s no longer necessary to keep it. We’ve listed a few of the regulations that are important to many companies collecting and processing their customers’ data. If you have customers or users who want the data that you’ve collected on them deleted, review these common requests and the procedures related to them.

- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), European Union
- Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), Japan
- Privacy Act, Australia

![Note](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-xcloud-data_protection_and_privacy-264-0-0-production-enus/27d1bf87-a47b-491a-8339-f53ef6540aec/images/icon_note.png)

Note Before you delete contact data from Marketing Cloud, export the list or data extension containing the deleted contact information for later review and regulatory compliance proof.

- Review any ENS subscriptions that contain engagement events.

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small ">
      <colgroup>
        <col style="width:33.33333333333333%">
        <col style="width:33.33333333333333%">
        <col style="width:33.33333333333333%">
      </colgroup>
      <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
        <tr class="">
          <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d10310e59">Common Customer Request</th>
          <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d10310e62">Actions to Consider</th>
          <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d10310e65">Things to Consider</th>
        </tr>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        <tr class="">
          <td data-label="Common Customer Request" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e59 ">How do I delete specific contacts from my account?</td>

          <td data-label="Actions to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e62 ">
            <ul>
              <li>Export basic ID information from a list or data extensions
                before you begin any deletion process. Save this information in
                a location where you don’t process data for future reference.
                This data helps ensure that you don’t accidentally reimport
                deleted data.</li>

              <li><a href="https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mc_cab_contact_deletion.htm&amp;type=5&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank">Delete contacts</a> in Contact Builder.</li>

              <li>Use the delete calls for contacts in the <a href="https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.noversion.mc-apis.meta/mc-apis/routes.htm" target="_blank">Marketing Cloud REST API</a>.</li>

              <li>To delete data from Audience Studio, use <a href="https://konsole.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000501494" target="_blank">these tools</a>.</li>

            </ul>
          </td>

          <td data-label="Things to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e65 ">
            <ul>
              <li>
                <p>Ensure that this functionality is available to your account by contacting your
                  Marketing Cloud account representative. This feature applies to these apps:</p>
                <ul>
                  <li>Marketing Cloud Advertising</li>

                  <li>Audience Builder</li>

                  <li>Contact Builder</li>

                  <li>Email Studio</li>

                  <li>GroupConnect</li>

                  <li>Journey Builder</li>

                  <li>MobileConnect</li>

                  <li>MobilePush</li>

                  <li>Setup</li>

                </ul>

              </li>

              <li>If you delete subscriber information from Email Studio, that
                deletion applies only to the Email Studio Channel. To fully
                delete all contact information from Marketing Cloud, delete the
                contact record in Contact Builder using Contact Delete.</li>

              <li>Contact Delete processes these values during the suppression and
                deletion phases:<ul>
                  <li>ContactKey or SubscriberKey</li>
                  <li>ContactID or SubscriberID</li>
                </ul>
              </li>

              <li>If you add a contact with the same ContactKey or SubscriberKey
                but different ContactID or SubscriberID, you can introduce a
                deleted contact back into your system as a new entry with a new
                SubscriberID, and without previous statistics, clicks, or other
                personal data. We recommend retaining a list of deleted
                ContactKey and SubscriberKey values to prevent this
                reintroduction into your system.</li>

              <li>We recommend that Marketing Cloud Connect users delete
                information from Sales or Service clouds first, then delete
                information from Marketing Cloud. Use API calls to delete
                contact information from triggered send lists, Salesforce legacy
                lists, or Microsoft Dynamics CRM lists.</li>

              <li>We recommend that Marketing Cloud users that use Audience Studio
                or Personalization Builder delete information from Marketing
                Cloud first, then Audience Studio or Personalization
                Builder.</li>

              <li>Audience Builder removes deleted contacts during the regularly
                scheduled data load automation. This process creates an
                automation in Automation Studio with the name of
                <samp class="filepath">AB-&lt;YourEID&gt;-Contact Delete
                  Program</samp>. This step prevents the inclusion of
                those contacts in new audiences. Audience Builder also removes
                related usage data, data from sendable data extensions, and
                non-sendable data deleted manually from data extensions in
                Contact Builder at this time. Allow 24 hours for this deletion
                to fully process. You may see information from suppressed or
                deleted contacts in Audience Builder until the 24-hour deletion
                process fully completes.
              </li>

              <li>Audience Builder users deleting contacts via the Contact Delete
                API must set the TrackChanges parameter to
                <kbd>true</kbd> to remove deletions upon the
                regularly scheduled data load automation.
              </li>

              <li>Email Recommendations, Web Recommendations, and Web and Mobile
                Analytics use separate app and API interfaces to delete contact
                information. One request to any product in this group affects
                all products. You can make Do Not Track and Do Not Profile
                preferences available in a customer profile center.</li>

              <li>Einstein products accessed via the Marketing Cloud include
                Einstein Engagement Scoring, Send Time Optimization, and
                Einstein Engagement Frequency. When you terminate your contract
                or delete email and subscriber data for one or more subscribers,
                the data these features use is removed completely within the
                following 90 days. This data is excluded from analysis as soon
                as is feasible. You can make Do Not Track and Do Not Profile
                preferences available in a customer profile center.</li>

              <li>When you delete a contact record for one or more subscribers
                within Marketing Cloud, any personal information for those
                contacts is removed from Intelligence Reports within the
                following 90 days.</li>

              <li>To remove Interaction Studio data from sendable data extensions
                stored in Marketing Cloud, delete contacts in Contact Builder.
                You’re responsible for removing any related information from
                other data sources, such as non-sendable data extensions, FTP
                uploads, and data extracts. You must also <a href="https://na5.thunderhead.com/one/help/interaction-studio/how-do-i/is_gdpr_delete_customer_data/" target="_blank">remove data from inside Interaction
                  Studio</a>.</li>

              <li>You’re responsible for deleting applicable contact information
                from these sources:<ul>
                  <li>FTP - Remove contact data from any stored files</li>
                  <li>Databases</li>
                  <li>Spreadsheets</li>
                  <li>Non-sendable data extensions - Use data retention
                    policies or make the data extensions sendable to ensure
                    that the Contact Delete process applies to those data
                    extensions.</li>
                  <li>Send logs</li>
                  <li>Data emitted to your callback endpoint via Event
                    Notification Services.</li>
                </ul>
              </li>

              <li>To implement data retention policies for existing data
                extensions, create a data extension with the appropriate policy.
                Next, import the data from the old data extension to the new
                data extension. You can then delete the old data extension.
                Update any automated processes using the old data extension with
                the new data extension.</li>

              <li>Refrain from using deleted contacts as the subject of a test
                send to avoid accidental sends.</li>

              <li>If you change a data extension to a sendable data extension
                after performing a Contact Delete request, the process doesn’t
                include that data extension.</li>

              <li>We delete contact keys from a contact record from other contact
                records as well, such as removing a parent’s email address from
                a child’s contact record.</li>

              <li>Delete contact information from all accounts, including those
                accounts used for testing.</li>

              <li>
                <p>If a MobilePush data subject makes a data compliance request
                  via Marketing Cloud, we send a silent push to the customer
                  app to indicate the applicable change. The MobilePush SDK
                  also makes the customer app check in daily for data
                  compliance changes. If Marketing Cloud sends the silent push
                  and the device doesn’t process it before the next check-in,
                  the device may not comply with regulations until the
                  check-in occurs.</p>
              </li>

              <li>After a Right to Be Forgotten request takes place, the data
                subject can opt in to further processing by deleting and
                reinstalling the customer app.</li>

              <li>If the IP address is collected, when a contact is deleted, the
                IP address is deleted and can’t be used to track back to the
                contact. </li>

            </ul>
          </td>

        </tr>
        <tr class="">
          <td data-label="Common Customer Request" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e59 ">How do I access my account data within 90 days of contract
            cancellation?</td>

          <td data-label="Actions to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e62 ">You can log in to your account for 90 days to export data via the
            user interface or the API.</td>

          <td data-label="Things to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e65 ">
            <ul>
              <li>Marketing Cloud begins deletion of all customer information in
                an account 120 days after contract cancellation.</li>

              <li>After 90 days, you can’t renew access to data.</li>

              <li>A new account can’t access data from the previous account.</li>

            </ul>
          </td>

        </tr>
        <tr class="">
          <td data-label="Common Customer Request" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e59 ">How do I stop all automations in my account within 90 days of
            contract cancellation?</td>

          <td data-label="Actions to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e62 ">
            <ul>
              <li><a href="https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mc_as_stop_a_running_automation.htm&amp;type=5&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank">Stop an Automation Studio automation</a>.</li>

              <li><a href="https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mc_jb_stop_journey.htm&amp;type=5&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank">Stop a Journey Builder journey</a>.</li>

            </ul>
          </td>

          <td data-label="Things to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e65 ">Stop all automations not used to export data or capture unsubscribes.
            This step prevents activities that could add new data to your
            account.</td>

        </tr>
        <tr class="">
          <td data-label="Common Customer Request" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e59 ">How do I unpublish all web-based materials in my account within 90
            days of contract cancellation?</td>

          <td data-label="Actions to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e62 ">
            <ul>
              <li><a href="https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.mc_cp_unpublish_pages.htm&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank">Unpublish CloudPages</a>.</li>

            </ul>
          </td>

          <td data-label="Things to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e65 ">Don’t unpublish or pause pages used to capture unsubscribe requests.
            These pages record the unsubscribe requests that you need to
            retain.</td>

        </tr>
        <tr class="">
          <td data-label="Common Customer Request" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e59 ">How do I stop all inbound and outbound activities not related to data
            export in my account within 90 days after contract cancellation?</td>

          <td data-label="Actions to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e62 ">
            <ul>
              <li>Stop all inbound data not used to capture unsubscribes, such as
                opt-in activities for email, SMS, and push messages.</li>

              <li>Stop all outbound data transmission not used to export data,
                such as scheduled messaging sends or data exports.</li>

              <li>Uninstall all third-party API integrations not used to export
                data or capture unsubscribes.</li>

              <li>Delete all custom API integrations not used to export data or
                capture unsubscribes. </li>

            </ul>
          </td>

          <td data-label="Things to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e65 ">
            <ul>
              <li>API functionality depends on what you implemented for your
                account. Don’t stop API functionality used to capture
                unsubscribe requests.</li>

              <li>Marketing Cloud doesn’t send or process triggered sends to
                suppressed or deleted contacts.</li>

            </ul>
          </td>

        </tr>
        <tr class="">
          <td data-label="Common Customer Request" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e59 ">How do I handle a deletion request for data from a social media
            platform that is stored in Social Studio?</td>

          <td data-label="Actions to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e62 ">For Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, Social Studio inherits deletion
            requests for public data from the applicable social network. For those
            social networks, data subjects must request deletion from the social
            networks, and Social Studio inherits those changes. Private data, such
            as direct messages, from these social networks can be deleted by
            customers directly in the Social Studio platform. But these deletions
            don’t flow through to the applicable social networks.</td>

          <td data-label="Things to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e65 ">For deletion requests for other social networks, contact your
            Marketing Cloud account representative.</td>

        </tr>
        <tr class="">
          <td data-label="Common Customer Request" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e59 ">How do I delete a user’s personal information stored in a Marketing
            Cloud Intelligence account?</td>

          <td data-label="Actions to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e62 ">Contact your Marketing Cloud Intelligence account
            representative.</td>

          <td data-label="Things to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e65 ">&nbsp;</td>

        </tr>
        <tr class="">
          <td data-label="Common Customer Request" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e59 ">How do I delete data from Marketing Cloud Intelligence?</td>

          <td data-label="Actions to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e62 ">
            <ol>
              <li>Go to the <strong class="uicontrol">Connect &amp; Mix</strong> tab.</li>

              <li>Click <strong class="uicontrol">Delete Data</strong>.</li>

              <li>Select the data streams from which you would like to delete
                data.</li>

              <li>Select the date range for the data that you would like to
                delete.</li>

            </ol>
          </td>

          <td data-label="Things to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e65 ">In Data Lakes, use the <strong class="uicontrol">Delete Data</strong> tab. Delete
            rows from Data Lakes. Alternatively, you can delink the data, which
            allows the data to remain in Data Lakes but replaces certain field
            values with other values to make the data anonymous.</td>

        </tr>
        <tr class="">
          <td data-label="Common Customer Request" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e59 ">How do I delete a data stream from Marketing Cloud
            Intelligence?</td>

          <td data-label="Actions to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e62 ">
            <ol>
              <li>Go to the <strong class="uicontrol">Data Streams List</strong>.</li>

              <li>Select the data streams to delete.</li>

              <li>Click <strong class="uicontrol">Delete</strong>.</li>

            </ol>
          </td>

          <td data-label="Things to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e65 ">After you delete a data stream it goes to the Workspace Bin. To
            permanently delete a data stream, delete it from the Workspace Bin
            also.</td>

        </tr>
        <tr class="">
          <td data-label="Common Customer Request" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e59 ">When is my data deleted from Marketing Cloud Intelligence after
            contract cancellation?</td>

          <td data-label="Actions to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e62 ">You can export data from your Marketing Cloud Intelligence account only while the
            account is active. After the contract is canceled or expires, the access is lost and
            the data can no longer be exported.</td>

          <td data-label="Things to Consider" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d10310e65 ">Marketing Cloud Intelligence begins deletion of all customer
            information in an account 90 days after contract cancellation.</td>

        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>

Data protection and privacy compliance can require you to encrypt all data during transit. We recommend taking these steps to ensure compliance.

- To help ensure TLS compliance, use the latest version of your browser and HTTPS addresses to connect to Marketing Cloud.
- Use OAuth [access token](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.noversion.mc-getting-started.meta/mc-getting-started/get-access-token.htm) authentication for REST and SOAP API calls.
- Follow our [API security best practices](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.noversion.mc-apis.meta/mc-apis/api-security.htm).
- Use [SSL certificates](https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=000232477&type=1&language=en_US) for all landing pages.

#### See Also

- [Deliverable Name: DMP Documentation Portal](https://konsole.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/360000109694)
- [Manage Einstein Recommendations Customer Profile Data Privacy](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mc_pb_delete_a_personalization_builder_customer_profile.htm&type=5&language=en_US)
- [Marketing Cloud Engagement Data Protection and Privacy Tools](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mc_overview_data_protection_privacy.htm&type=5&language=en_US)