Canonical: https://molo17.com/pii-discovery-and-masking/ Markdown mirror: https://molo17.com/pii-discovery-and-masking/index.md Title: PII discovery & masking · Gluesync · MOLO17 Description: Gluesync PII discovery and masking: automatic column classification in 12 languages, regional checksum detectors, PII tags across the Control Plane, read-time masking in Query Studio and AI tool results, platform-wide controls, and pre-built masking field functions for data in transit. Ships with Gluesync 2.3. Gluesync Core Hub · Ships with Gluesync 2.3 # PII discovery & masking Core Hub classifies columns that look like personally identifiable information, shows a PII tag wherever you pick or inspect a field, and masks the values before Query Studio or an AI tool ever receives them. Column names are matched in twelve languages, sample scans validate national identifiers with regional checksums, and pre-built masking field functions redact the data that has to leave the pipeline. [See how it works](#how-it-works) [Talk to our team](/contacts/?topic=gluesync-platform#contact-form-section) PII discovery & masking 1. 01 Find PII by name and by value 2. 02 Mask results before they leave Core Hub 3. 03 Redact in transit with field functions Why PII discovery ## You cannot protect the columns you have not found 01 / What PII is ### Anything that points at a person Emails, phone numbers, national and tax identifiers, card numbers, IBANs, dates of birth, addresses, passport and licence numbers, and the secrets that unlock them. Regulations such as GDPR expect you to know where they are and who can see them. 02 / Where it hides ### Spread across engines and languages A replication platform touches every database you own. Sensitive columns are called correo\_electronico in one schema, geburtsdatum in another and contact\_1 in a third. Spreadsheets of column names go stale the day after they are written. 03 / The platform outcome ### Classify once, enforce everywhere Core Hub stores one verdict per column and reuses it: as a tag in every editor, as a mask on every Query Studio and AI result, and as the signal that tells you which columns need a masking function before they reach a target. How it works ## From a column name to a protected result 1. 01 Discover ### Name classifier, then sample scan Column names are normalized and matched against a multilingual dictionary with token boundaries, so name matches but username does not. Scan table for PII adds a sample-based pass that validates formats such as IBAN mod-97, card Luhn and national identifier checksums. A manual Mark as PII or Not PII always wins. 2. 02 Label ### One tag, every screen The verdict appears as a PII tag in Query Studio, the Fields Editor, entity mapping, UDF, filter and custom key screens and CDC field lists. You see what is sensitive exactly where you decide what to replicate and how. 3. 03 Mask ### At read time, and in transit Query Studio results, copies and exports are masked inside Core Hub before the response leaves. AI Studio and MCP results are always masked. For data that has to reach a target, pre-built masking field functions redact it on the wire. Capabilities ## What ships in Gluesync 2.3 PII discovery is a Core Hub service with no extra component to deploy. It changes nothing about replication, snapshots or CDC: it is a read-time overlay for people and agents, plus the discovery layer that tells you where a masking field function belongs. Discovery and labels ### Find PII where you query it #### Tags in the schema tree, masked cells in the grid, scans and overrides from the same screen Open an agent in Query Studio and the schema tree already carries tags for columns whose names match the dictionary. Result headers repeat the tag and cells arrive masked. For generically named columns, Scan table for PII or Scan schema for PII run the sample-based classifiers; Mark as PII and Not PII record a user override that wins over automation. - Recognized labels: email, phone, iban, pan, it.codice-fiscale, ip, national-id, date-of-birth, passport, name, address, postal-code, tax-id, bank-account, driver-license and secret - Structural hints such as identifier, uuid, mostly-null or constant are catalog metadata and are never masked - Masked shapes: a\*\*\*@\*\*\*.com for email, bullets plus the last two characters for phone, bullets plus the last four for IBAN and card numbers, full bullets for the rest - Grid, record view, copy actions and CSV, JSON, SQL, Markdown, HTML, XML and XLSX exports all see the masked values - Super admins and Managers can turn on PII visible for a session when they need the original values [View PII discovery docs ↗](https://docs.molo17.com/gluesync/latest/security/pii-discovery-and-masking.html) PII discovery & masking Masking in transit ### Field functions that redact on the wire #### Pre-built masking functions, applied per column in the Fields Editor Discovery tells you which columns are sensitive; the data transformation layer keeps them from reaching a target in clear. The field function catalog ships a Data masking and anonymization category that overrides the incoming value with a redacted one, and the same tags appear in the Fields Editor so you can see which mapped columns still need one. - Mask Credit Card keeps only the last block of digits and preserves separators in place - Mask Email keeps the domain and the first character of the mailbox name - Mask Phone keeps the prefix and the last four digits, across international formats - Mask IBAN keeps the first four and last four characters; Mask String keeps the first letter of each word - For anything else, a UDF can drop or rewrite the field, and a Custom Field Function can hash or tokenize it with your own Java [View masking field functions ↗](https://docs.molo17.com/gluesync/latest/core-hub/field-functions.html) PII discovery & masking ### Overlay versus transformation Read-time masking protects what people and agents see inside Gluesync and does not change replicated data. A masking field function changes what the target receives. Use discovery to decide where each one belongs. Integrations ### One verdict across the platform #### Query Studio, AI Studio and MCP, Visualize, the pipeline editors and a platform-wide switch The stored classification is read by every surface that shows or executes SQL. Query Studio masks by default and lets authorized roles unmask per session. AI Studio, Query Studio AI helper traces and MCP execute\_sql results stay masked even when the platform toggle is off. Visualize runs its queries under the same policies as Query Studio. - Settings > Global settings > Mask PII platform-wide, stored as PII\_MASKING\_ENABLED and writable by Super admins only - MCP read tools classify\_table and classify\_schema return labels and confidence, never raw cells; the AI helper suggests Scan this schema for hidden PII - Pipeline editors show the tag in the Fields Editor, entity mapping, UDF, filter and custom document key screens and CDC field lists - Query Forge is a separate federated SQL path for JDBC clients: masking does not apply there, so treat those credentials as production-grade - Not column-level encryption or tokenization in the source or target, and not a replacement for a dedicated DLP product [View Core Hub MCP docs ↗](https://docs.molo17.com/gluesync/latest/gs-modules/corehub-mcp.html) PII discovery & masking Languages and regions ### Column names in twelve languages, identifiers from a dozen countries #### A global dictionary and regional value checks, with language-neutral labels The name dictionary is intentionally global: English plus common aliases in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Labels stay language-neutral, and the detector that fired is kept in the source rule for audit. Sample scans then validate high-confidence formats instead of treating every long number as PII. - Name matches such as correo\_electronico, téléphone, geburtsdatum, endereço, tc\_kimlik, 身份证, 郵便番号 and 주민등록번호 - Global detectors: email, E.164 phone, IPv4 and IPv6, IBAN mod-97 and payment-card Luhn - Regional checks: Italian codice fiscale, US SSN and Canadian SIN, Brazilian CPF, Indian Aadhaar, Chinese resident identity, South African identity number, Turkish TCKN, Spanish NIF and NIE, French NIR and Australian TFN - Confidence is typically 0.82 for a name match and 0.95 for secrets; schema scans are capped so a large catalog cannot stall the hub [View supported languages and detectors ↗](https://docs.molo17.com/gluesync/latest/security/pii-discovery-and-masking.html) PII discovery & masking Explore the platform ## Continue exploring Gluesync PII discovery sits between the editors where you shape data and the tools where you read it. These pages cover both sides. [### Data transformation The field functions, UDFs and Custom Field Functions that mask or drop sensitive values on the wire, once discovery has told you where they are. Explore Data transformation →](/data-transformation/) [### Query Studio Where tags, masked results, Scan table for PII and the PII visible toggle live, over any agent Gluesync connects to. Explore Query Studio →](/query-studio/) [### Core Hub MCP Server classify\_table and classify\_schema return labels and confidence only; execute\_sql redacts classified columns in results and traces. Explore Core Hub MCP Server →](/corehub-mcp/) [ ### Query Forge The federated SQL gateway for JDBC clients. A different path from Query Studio, with production-grade credentials instead of read-time masking. Explore Query Forge →](/query-forge/) Resources ## PII discovery and masking documentation and resources Documentation ### Documentation Technical guides, API reference, deployment tutorials. [Read documentation ↗](https://docs.molo17.com) Roadmap ### Public Roadmap What we're building next. Submit feature requests. [View roadmap ↗](https://roadmap.molo17.com) Support ### Support Access technical support and operational assistance. [Get support →](/support/) Status ### Service Status Real-time platform availability and incident history. [Check status ↗](https://status.molo17.com) ## Know where the personal data is. Decide who sees it. Request a free trial or talk with the MOLO17 team about PII discovery, read-time masking and masking field functions on your own schemas. [Request a free trial](/get-gluesync/) [Talk to our team](/contacts/?topic=gluesync-platform#contact-form-section) [Docs](https://docs.molo17.com/gluesync/latest/security/pii-discovery-and-masking.html)