How to Delete PII in SharePoint Automatically

SharePoint provides document storage and lifecycle management, but it does not detect or delete PII automatically. This creates retention and compliance risks across the entire organization.

SharePoint’s limitations:

• No PII detection for deletion
• No deletion of PII inside PDFs or images
• No cleanup of synced OneDrive content
• No removal of PII from prior file versions
• No automated deletion of historical PII
• No privacy-driven retention workflow for PII
• No GDPR/CCPA “right to be forgotten” automation

This causes PII to remain in SharePoint for years, in multiple versions, without visibility or governance.

What PII (Personal Data) Looks Like Inside SharePoint Files

PII appears across nearly every department and is embedded in dozens of file types. Files that frequently contain PII include:

• Employee onboarding forms
• HR PDFs with phone numbers, addresses, SSNs
• Screenshots containing personal information
• ID scans of passports and driver’s licenses
• Customer intake forms
• Spreadsheets with names and contact details
• Payroll and tax documents
• Call logs and transcripts
• Document bundles uploaded in ZIP archives

Examples of PII Strac detects and deletes:

• Full names and contact details
• Home addresses
• Phone numbers
• Email addresses
• SSNs, national ID numbers
• Birthdates
• Passport and driver’s license numbers
• Tax identifiers
• Student or patient identifiers
• PII inside images, scans, layered PDFs, and spreadsheets

Deletion must apply across all versions of the file to ensure full data removal.

✨What It Means to Delete PII (Personal Data) in SharePoint

Deleting PII requires more than removing a single file. True PII deletion requires:

• Removing the file from the library
• Clearing historical versions
• Deleting synced OneDrive copies
• Cleaning folder structures
• Removing external shares and guest access
• Ensuring the file cannot reappear via sync or automation
• Logging the deletion for audit and compliance

Manual deletion cannot scale to thousands of files across multiple SharePoint sites.

Strac’s deletion engine provides:

• Full file deletion
• Version-by-version cleanup
• Selective deletion (only delete PII pages or attachments)
• Automated approval workflows
• PII-driven retention rules
• Historical cleanup
• Detailed audit logs

How to Automatically Delete PII (Personal Data) in SharePoint with Strac

Strac continuously scans SharePoint for PII. When detected, Strac can delete files immediately—or trigger an approval workflow—depending on your policy.

How Strac deletion works:

• Detects PII in real time using AI + OCR + NLP
• Deletes the file from SharePoint libraries
• Deletes all historical versions containing PII
• Cleans synced OneDrive folders
• Logs every action for privacy audits
• Removes external shares containing PII
• Supports targeted deletion by PII type
• Protects from reuploading the same file

Organizations can choose:

• Auto-delete
• Alert + delete
• Delete with approval
• Delete only specific PII types (e.g., SSNs)
• Delete per specific department, library, or site

Real Examples of PII (Personal Data) Deletion in SharePoint

Example 1 — HR uploads SSN-heavy PDF forms
Strac deletes the file and all previous versions.

Example 2 — Employee uploads a passport scan
OCR detects the ID number and deletes the image instantly.

Example 3 — Customer list spreadsheet uploaded to a shared library
Strac deletes the file and logs the incident.

Example 4 — OneDrive sync uploads a ZIP archive of personal documents
Strac deletes the ZIP and removes sync copies.

Each deletion provides complete audit metadata.

Why Strac Is the Best Way to Delete PII (Personal Data) in SharePoint

• Automatically deletes PII across SharePoint + OneDrive
• AI + OCR detection across images, scans, PDFs, spreadsheets
• Supports GDPR “right to be forgotten”
• Real-time + historical cleanup
• Zero-agent deployment
• Integrates with Teams, Slack, SIEM tools, and email
• Full audit history for privacy regulators

🌶️Spicy FAQs on How to Delete PII (Personal Data) in SharePoint

Does SharePoint automatically delete PII?

No. SharePoint cannot detect or delete personal data.

Can Strac delete PII inside scanned documents and images?

Yes. OCR extracts PII and deletes the file.

Does Strac delete old versions of PII-containing files?

Yes. All versions containing PII are removed.

Can we delete only specific PII types, like SSNs?

Yes. Policies can target specific sensitive data categories.

Does deletion support GDPR/CCPA compliance?

Yes. Automated deletion aligns with data minimization and retention rules.

Try Strac for SharePoint PII (Personal Data) Deletion & DLP

Strac helps you automatically detect, classify, and delete personal data (PII) across SharePoint libraries, folders, and synced OneDrive locations—ensuring privacy compliance and eliminating unnecessary data exposure.