Customer data requests on your site
Privacy laws in several places give people the right to ask a business what personal data it holds about them, and to ask for it to be erased. Your published site can handle both requests on its own, without anything reaching your inbox. This page explains what the feature does, because it changes your records when someone uses it.
Switching it on
The page is off by default. Open the site, then Settings > Legal, and under Privacy requests & opt-outs switch on Show a data-request page. Save, and two things appear on the published site:
- a Manage your data link in the footer, next to the terms and privacy links;
- the page itself, at
yourdomain.com/data-request.
The same panel has a second switch, Show "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information", which adds the opt-out link that US state privacy laws name; pressing it declines analytics and marketing cookies on that visitor's device. The two are independent.
Until the switch is on, the address answers "page not found". If your privacy policy already promises a way to make a request, this is the cheapest way to keep that promise.
What a visitor does
- They open the page and enter their email address.
- They choose Get a copy of my data or Delete my data.
- We email that address a link, valid for 24 hours.
- They open the link and confirm.
The email is the whole security model. It proves the person making the request controls that address, so nobody can read or erase somebody else's records by typing their email into a form.
The page gives the same reply whether or not you hold any data for the address, and requests are rate-limited per address and per network. That combination stops the form being used to work out who your customers are, or to flood one person's inbox.
What "a copy of their data" returns
Everything you hold that is filed against that email address on that site: their contact record, their orders, their bookings, their reservations, their newsletter subscription and any messages they sent you.
What "delete my data" actually does
This is the part worth reading twice, because it is not one behavior but two.
Marketing data is deleted outright. Newsletter subscriptions and contact-form messages are removed. There is no reason to keep them once someone has asked you not to.
Transactional records are anonymised, not deleted. Orders, customers, contacts, bookings and rental reservations stay in your system, but the personal details are stripped out: name, email, phone, notes, address, and for rentals the license and additional-driver details.
The record survives because you usually have to keep it. Tax and accounting rules generally require you to retain the order or booking itself, and deleting it outright would tear a hole in your own books. What you keep afterwards is the transaction without the person attached: the amounts, the dates and the totals still add up, and your revenue reporting does not change.
Two things to know
You are not notified. The confirmation emails go to the customer who made the request, not to you. If you want to know that a record changed, you will see it in your contacts or orders list. Nothing lands in your inbox.
A request only affects one site. It is scoped to a single project and a single email address. A customer who has bought from two of your sites has to ask each of them separately, and each site has its own switch.
What this feature is not
It handles requests from your customers about their data. It is unrelated to deleting your own Webkio account, which is covered in Deleting your account, and to Download My Data on your own Settings page, which exports your account.
It is also a tool, not legal advice. Which laws apply to you, and what your privacy policy has to say, depends on where you and your customers are. If you are unsure, ask someone qualified.
Next steps
- All your customers in one place
- Segments, timeline & merge
- Business details for the generated terms and privacy pages
Frequently asked questions
How do I turn the page on?
Settings > Legal, then Show a data-request page. The footer link and the page appear on the published site as soon as you save.
Do I have to do anything when a request comes in?
No. The customer confirms by email and the site answers or anonymises on its own. You are not notified.
Will a deletion remove an order from my accounts?
No. The order stays with its amounts and dates; the name, address and contact details are removed from it.
Can someone delete another person's data?
No. The link goes to the address entered, and only the person who can open that inbox can confirm.
Does one request cover all my sites?
No. One site, one address, one switch. A customer of two sites asks twice.
What about a request that arrives by email instead?
Point them at the page. It verifies their identity and answers faster than you can by hand.
Related reading
- The legal pages your website needs - where this route has to be linked from.
- Cookie consent basics - the other half of the same obligation.