GDPR Tutorial: Deleting Customer Data from Amazon Redshift

The introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has imposed significant changes on how organizations manage personal data, particularly with the "right to be forgotten" which mandates the deletion of personal data upon request. For companies using Snowplow, its structured event data model facilitates this process, particularly for deleting user data from Amazon Redshift. The guide outlines a step-by-step process, beginning with identifying and isolating the events associated with a specific user, followed by deleting these from both derived tables and the main events table, and concluding with post-deletion cleanup such as vacuuming and logging the time range of deleted events. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of reviewing snapshot retention policies and maintaining best practices for GDPR compliance, such as using consistent identifiers, automating the deletion process, and regularly auditing and logging deletions. Ultimately, Snowplow's model, by isolating event metadata and separating enriched data, allows for systematic and confident user data deletions, aligning with privacy-by-design principles.