In this article, we explain how to disable the recording of form field data.
This is relevant if you capture your visitors’ confidential or sensitive data, such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and/or Payment Card Industry (PCI) data (e.g. Credit Card details) on your website, but don’t want SessionCam to record or capture this information.
Before we start, it’s worth noting that, although in SessionCam we refer to this process as 'masking' or ‘starring out’, in effect rather than just obscuring the data, when recording we never capture and therefore never store the data. Instead, any data entered into disabled fields displays as an asterisk e.g. ****. For numeric fields, if your field uses HTML5, numbers will display customer input as a single 0, this is because the HTML5 field validation rules restrict adding an * or any non-numeric character in the field.
Masking your data in this way won’t prevent you from viewing and analysing your customer behaviour, in most cases SessionCam will still capture the number of characters entered so you will still see the interaction in real-time and identify any field re-entry.
IMPORTANT - SessionCam automatically masks any account number, credit card number, password, or related field for your security.
Now that’s out of the way, we can explore how you can do this. SessionCam supports two different methods of disabling form fields:
Method 1: define fields within your HTML code
You can disable fields by adding the ‘sessioncamexclude’ class to text fields.
For example:
<input type="text" class="sessioncamexclude" />
Adding this class will automatically disable the recording of this field. The code snippet takes precedence over anything in the SessionCam console.
As the code sits in your HTML if your site changes this code snippet is much easier to track and will stay relevant. We recommend this approach as a zero risk option.
Method 2: use a field’s ‘name’ attribute to disable it from within the console
To do this you will need the ‘Edit Hostnames’ permission enabled within your user profile. If you would like to upgrade your permission level please contact our Support team on support@sessioncam.com.
Step 1 – Console Privacy Settings
The SessionCam console provides four masking options to choose from when considering your field masking, these are:
- Record all fields – this is the default, ‘out of the box’ setting and means that no ‘masking’ has been applied to any fields – so recordings will show any data input;
- Star out all fields – As you’d expect, this is the exact opposite of the above. The console will identify all fields with a ‘name’ attribute (see Step 2 for more information) and apply blanket masking across the hostname/path to which this option has been set;
- Star out specific fields – this option assumes that we are recording all fields (as per Option 1) and allows you to disable individual fields whilst retaining an overall blanket masking approach. This option is useful if in general, you want to reveal all field data input, but there are one or two fields you would like to disable; and
- Record specific fields – this option assumes that all fields are being disabled (as per Option 2) and allows you to record individual fields whilst retaining an overall blanket masking approach. This option is useful if in general, you want to mask everything, but there are one or two fields you would like to see the data entry, such as a promo code field.
The console also provides the option to ‘Star anonymous fields’ – please note, this is only selectable at hostname level. When enabled (the default setting), this feature identifies any input, select or textarea field with neither a name or ‘sessioncam-name’ and automatically masks it. Please see the following article on how to set up a custom field name.
Step 2 – identify the unique field ‘name’ attribute.
If you have chosen either masking Options 3 or 4 you will need to identify a field’s ‘name’ attribute in order to tell the console to mask or un-mask the data input.
To do this start by right-clicking on the field you want to mask/un-mask and choose ‘Inspect’ from the drop-down menu that pops up. If the field has a ‘name’ you will see the following in the html:
name = “First Name”
If there is no ‘name’ attribute you can add a sessioncam-name to a field, please see the following help article.
Now, log in to the console – and, if you have access to multiple accounts, select the account you want to configure.
In the console, click on the drop-down list on the top right-hand side, hover over the ‘Manage’ heading, and then choose ‘Hostnames/Paths’ from the sub-menu.
You will now see a list of all hostnames/paths that were added to the console as part of our initial onboarding process.
To configure the masking for a particular page, you need to choose the correct or most appropriate hostname or path listed. We recommend that where possible you apply your masking rules at hostname level, however occasionally it will be necessary to configure a specific path.
IMPORTANT - if you are in any doubt about which hostname/path to configure please contact our Support team (support@sessioncam.com).
When you have decided which hostname you want to configure click on the ‘Edit’ button to the right of the hostname/path. You should now be in the ‘Manage Hostname Settings’ section. Underneath this title you will find confirmation of the hostname/path you are about to edit.
Next, click on the ‘PRIVACY SETTINGS’ tab near the top.
To choose your preferred masking option (see Step 1) click on the ‘Form Field Privacy’ drop-down box. If you choose either ‘Star out specific fields’ or ‘Record specific fields’ a new ‘FIELD NAME’ section is brought up.
You can now add in the ‘name’ attribute for each field you want to specifically mask/un-mask. To do this:
Click on the ‘Add New Field’ button – a ‘Add new field’ modal will pop up
Type in the ‘name’ attribute in to the ‘Field name’ text box, for example ‘First Name’ exactly as it appears in the html.
Underneath is an ‘Option’ drop-down box.
Star whole field is pre-selected and means that we will mask all data in the field with the stated name (‘First Name’ in this example). By selecting ‘Show the first’ or ‘Show the last’, you can choose to reveal the first or last character entered in the field.
Click ‘Add Field’ - you will receive confirmation this has been accepted as follows
Then repeat with as many field names you want to mask/un-mask.
When finished click ‘Close’ and the modal will disappear.
To register your choices you must click on ‘Confirm Changes’ on the bottom right of the console screen.
