Databricks Data Handling

Overview

Implement GDPR compliance, PII masking, data retention, and row-level security in Delta Lake with Unity Catalog. Covers data classification tagging, right-to-deletion workflows, automated retention enforcement, column-level masking functions, and subject access request (SAR) reporting.

Prerequisites

Unity Catalog enabled
Understanding of data classification requirements (GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA)
Admin access for tags and masking functions

Instructions

Step 1: Classify and Tag Data

Use Unity Catalog tags to classify tables and columns for automated compliance enforcement.

-- Tag tables with classification and retention
ALTER TABLE prod_catalog.silver.customers
SET TAGS ('data_classification' = 'PII', 'retention_days' = '730');

ALTER TABLE prod_catalog.silver.orders
SET TAGS ('data_classification' = 'CONFIDENTIAL', 'retention_days' = '365');

ALTER TABLE prod_catalog.gold.metrics
SET TAGS ('data_classification' = 'INTERNAL', 'retention_days' = '1825');

-- Tag PII columns
ALTER TABLE prod_catalog.silver.customers
ALTER COLUMN email SET TAGS ('pii_type' = 'email');

ALTER TABLE prod_catalog.silver.customers
ALTER COLUMN phone SET TAGS ('pii_type' = 'phone');

ALTER TABLE prod_catalog.silver.customers
ALTER COLUMN full_name SET TAGS ('pii_type' = 'name');

Step 2: GDPR Right-to-Deletion

Delete all user data across PII-tagged tables with audit logging.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from datetime import datetime

spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()

class GDPRHandler:
    """Handle GDPR deletion requests across all PII-tagged tables."""

    def __init__(self, catalog: str):
        self.catalog = catalog

    def find_pii_tables(self) -> list[str]:
        """Find all tables tagged as PII."""
        result = spark.sql(f"""
            SELECT table_catalog, table_schema, table_name
            FROM {self.catalog}.information_schema.table_tags
            WHERE tag_name = 'data_classification' AND tag_value = 'PII'
        """).collect()
        return [f"{r.table_catalog}.{r.table_schema}.{r.table_name}" for r in result]

    def process_deletion(self, user_id: str, request_id: str, dry_run: bool = True) -> dict:
        """Delete user data from all PII tables. Returns audit record."""
        pii_tables = self.find_pii_tables()
        audit = {
            "request_id": request_id,
            "user_id": user_id,
            "timestamp": datetime.utcnow().isoformat(),
            "dry_run": dry_run,
            "tables_processed": [],
        }

        for table in pii_tables:
            # Check if table has a user_id-like column
            cols = [c.name for c in spark.table(table).schema]
            user_col = next((c for c in cols if c in ("user_id", "customer_id", "account_id")), None)

            if not user_col:
                continue

            count = spark.sql(
                f"SELECT COUNT(*) AS cnt FROM {table} WHERE {user_col} = '{user_id}'"
            ).first().cnt

            if count > 0 and not dry_run:
                spark.sql(f"DELETE FROM {table} WHERE {user_col} = '{user_id}'")

            audit["tables_processed"].append({
                "table": table,
                "column": user_col,
                "rows_affected": count,
                "action": "DELETED" if not dry_run else "WOULD_DELETE",
            })

        # Log audit record
        if not dry_run:
            spark.createDataFrame([audit]).write.mode("append").saveAsTable(
                f"{self.catalog}.compliance.gdpr_audit_log"
            )

        return audit

# Usage
gdpr = GDPRHandler("prod_catalog")
# Always dry-run first
report = gdpr.process_deletion("user-12345", "GDPR-2024-001", dry_run=True)
for t in report["tables_processed"]:
    print(f"  {t['table']}: {t['rows_affected']} rows {t['action']}")

Step 3: Automated Data Retention

class RetentionEnforcer:
    """Delete data older than retention policy set via table tags."""

    def __init__(self, catalog: str):
        self.catalog = catalog

    def enforce(self, dry_run: bool = True) -> list[dict]:
        """Process all tables with retention_days tag."""
        tagged = spark.sql(f"""
            SELECT table_catalog, table_schema, table_name, tag_value AS retention_days
            FROM {self.catalog}.information_schema.table_tags
            WHERE tag_name = 'retention_days'
        """).collect()

        results = []
        for row in tagged:
            table = f"{row.table_catalog}.{row.table_schema}.{row.table_name}"
            retention_days = int(row.retention_days)

            # Find date column (prefer created_at, event_date, order_date)
            cols = [c.name for c in spark.table(table).schema]
            date_col = next(
                (c for c in cols if c in ("created_at", "event_date", "order_date", "timestamp")),
                None,
            )
            if not date_col:
                continue

            expired = spark.sql(f"""
                SELECT COUNT(*) AS cnt FROM {table}
                WHERE {date_col} < current_timestamp() - INTERVAL {retention_days} DAYS
            """).first().cnt

            if expired > 0 and not dry_run:
                spark.sql(f"""
                    DELETE FROM {table}
                    WHERE {date_col} < current_timestamp() - INTERVAL {retention_days} DAYS
                """)
                # Clean up deleted files
                spark.sql(f"VACUUM {table} RETAIN 168 HOURS")

            results.append({
                "table": table, "retention_days": retention_days,
                "expired_rows": expired, "action": "DELETED" if not dry_run else "WOULD_DELETE",
            })

        return results

# Schedule as a daily Databricks job
enforcer = RetentionEnforcer("prod_catalog")
for r in enforcer.enforce(dry_run=True):
    print(f"  {r['table']}: {r['expired_rows']} rows > {r['retention_days']} days {r['action']}")

Step 4: Column-Level PII Masking

-- Create masking functions for different PII types
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION prod_catalog.compliance.mask_email(val STRING)
  RETURN IF(IS_ACCOUNT_GROUP_MEMBER('pii-readers'), val,
            CONCAT(LEFT(val, 1), '***@', SUBSTRING_INDEX(val, '@', -1)));

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION prod_catalog.compliance.mask_phone(val STRING)
  RETURN IF(IS_ACCOUNT_GROUP_MEMBER('pii-readers'), val,
            CONCAT('***-***-', RIGHT(val, 4)));

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION prod_catalog.compliance.mask_name(val STRING)
  RETURN IF(IS_ACCOUNT_GROUP_MEMBER('pii-readers'), val,
            CONCAT(LEFT(val, 1), REPEAT('*', LENGTH(val) - 1)));

-- Apply masks to columns
ALTER TABLE prod_catalog.silver.customers
  ALTER COLUMN email SET MASK prod_catalog.compliance.mask_email;

ALTER TABLE prod_catalog.silver.customers
  ALTER COLUMN phone SET MASK prod_catalog.compliance.mask_phone;

ALTER TABLE prod_catalog.silver.customers
  ALTER COLUMN full_name SET MASK prod_catalog.compliance.mask_name;

-- Test: non-privileged users see masked data
-- email: j***@company.com
-- phone: ***-***-1234
-- name: J****

Step 5: Row-Level Security

-- Restrict data access by department/region
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION prod_catalog.compliance.region_filter(region STRING)
  RETURN IF(IS_ACCOUNT_GROUP_MEMBER('global-admins'), true,
            region IN (SELECT allowed_region
                       FROM prod_catalog.compliance.user_region_access
                       WHERE user_email = current_user()));

ALTER TABLE prod_catalog.gold.sales
  SET ROW FILTER prod_catalog.compliance.region_filter ON (region);

-- Analysts only see data for their assigned regions

Step 6: Subject Access Request (SAR)

def generate_sar_report(catalog: str, user_id: str) -> dict:
    """Generate a GDPR Subject Access Request report."""
    gdpr = GDPRHandler(catalog)
    pii_tables = gdpr.find_pii_tables()

    report = {"user_id": user_id, "generated_at": datetime.utcnow().isoformat(), "data": {}}

    for table in pii_tables:
        cols = [c.name for c in spark.table(table).schema]
        user_col = next((c for c in cols if c in ("user_id", "customer_id")), None)
        if not user_col:
            continue

        rows = spark.sql(f"SELECT * FROM {table} WHERE {user_col} = '{user_id}'").toPandas()
        if not rows.empty:
            report["data"][table] = rows.to_dict(orient="records")

    return report

# Generate and export
sar = generate_sar_report("prod_catalog", "user-12345")
print(f"Found data in {len(sar['data'])} tables")

Output

Data classification tags on tables and PII columns
GDPR deletion workflow with dry-run and audit logging
Automated retention enforcement via tagged policies
Column masking functions for email, phone, name
Row-level security restricting access by region/department
SAR report generation for compliance requests

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
`VACUUM` fails	Retention below 7 days	Set minimum `RETAIN 168 HOURS`
`DELETE` times out	Very large table	Partition deletes across multiple runs
Mask function error	Column type mismatch	Ensure mask function signature matches column type
Missing `user_id` column	Non-standard schema	Maintain a table-to-user-column mapping
Row filter performance	Complex subquery	Materialize user permissions as a small lookup table

Examples

Quick Compliance Check

-- Find all PII-tagged tables and their masking status
SELECT t.table_name, t.tag_value AS classification,
       COUNT(c.column_name) AS masked_columns
FROM prod_catalog.information_schema.table_tags t
LEFT JOIN prod_catalog.information_schema.column_tags c
    ON t.table_name = c.table_name AND c.tag_name = 'pii_type'
WHERE t.tag_name = 'data_classification' AND t.tag_value = 'PII'
GROUP BY t.table_name, t.tag_value;

Resources

Next Steps

For enterprise RBAC, see databricks-enterprise-rbac.

databricks-data-handling