Candidate, Contact, or Lead Erasure

Learn how to permanently anonymize a candidate, contact, or lead record when someone requests their personal data be removed from your system.

Anonymization is permanent and cannot be undone. Confirm you have a request from the person before proceeding. This is especially critical when mass anonymizing multiple records.

Before You Begin

You'll need Admin-level access and the appropriate entitlements to erase data. If you don't have this access, contact your Bullhorn Admin.

If you are an Admin and need to enable data erasure entitlements for yourself or another user, contact Bullhorn Support.

What Gets Anonymized

When you anonymize a record, the following changes occur:

  • The person's name is replaced with asterisks, and all personal data is removed from the record

  • All edit history is permanently deleted

  • All emails where the person was the sender or the only recipient are deleted

  • All notes where only this person was referenced change to "Anonymized Note"

  • Notes referencing multiple people are updated to remove only this person—other references remain intact

  • Custom text fields are cleared (set to NULL)

  • The following information is also permanently deleted:

    • Custom objects

    • File attachments and references

    • Appointments and task references

    • Distribution list associations

    • Candidate education records, references, and work history records

Linked Records

If the record you're erasing is linked to another candidate, contact, lead, or placement, those linked records are also anonymized. You must unlink these records first if you want to preserve them.

Data that gets erased from linked records includes:

  • Name, email, address, and phone fields

  • Fax, pager, company name, and company URL

  • Notes and descriptions

  • SSN and Tax ID

  • Submission and placement data

If your ATS is integrated with Bullhorn Back Office or Onboarding, anonymizing a record will also erase their data in those systems. If you have a non-production environment, you'll need to anonymize the data there as well.

Anonymize a Single Record

  1. Go to the candidate, contact, or lead record.

  2. Click the Actions dropdown and select Erase Data.

  3. On the confirmation popup, click Erase Data again.

  4. Once confirmed, the person's information is immediately anonymized.

Anonymize Multiple Records

This process permanently erases data for all selected records. Use caution and verify your selection before confirming.

  1. Go to the candidate, contact, or lead list view.

  2. Check the boxes next to the records you want to anonymize.

  3. Click the # Selected dropdown and select Erase All Data.

    • Review your selection carefully—the next step is irreversible.

  4. On the confirmation popup, click Erase Data.

  5. All selected records are immediately anonymized.

FAQ

What happens to a candidate who's linked to a contact or lead?

The linked records are also anonymized. If you want to keep the linked record, unlink it before anonymizing the main record.

Can I undo an erasure?

No. Anonymization is permanent and cannot be reversed. Always confirm you have a request from the person before proceeding.

What if I only want to delete some of their data, not everything?

Use the Erase Data option only if the person has requested complete removal. If you need to update individual fields instead, edit the record directly without using erasure.

Do I need to tell the person when their data is erased?

The system captures erasure requests and stores them. However, you should follow your organization's privacy procedures for notifying the person that their data has been removed.