The 4.9.6 release includes new Privacy features. On the release post it says :
Data Erasure
Site owners can erase a user’s personal data, including data collected by participating plugins.
“Data”.
I really do think that this should have been spelled out a lot better. It’s not in the Codex that I could find.
Say very precisely what will happen.
I wanted to know and the only way to check was to try it.
I made a comment on my last post. This is what I saw in the site admin:
I then entered that email address into the Tools > Erase Personal Data page in site admin and I clicked the link
This shows
I click the button and go to Comments
So the result is that:
– the name is removed
– the url to their website is removed
– the email is removed
– the last octet of their IP is removed
– and the comment remains intact
WordPress really could have done a much better job and explained this to all it’s users.
(and don’t forget that as I get emails whenever a comment is left that will always have all the information now removed from the site. And if it’s in a search engine? Good luck with that..)