Privacy Updates in 5.4

WordPress 5.4 brings several improvements to the privacy tools to improve the user experience and expand upon the data provided in personal data exports.

Personal Data Export now includes Session Tokens, Community Events Location and Custom User MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress..

In WordPress 5.4 the Personal Data exports were expanded upon to ensure the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) present in Session Tokens (#45889) and the Community Events Location (#43921) user data were made available to the exporting user. This data is made available in the export as custom group sections.

Along with the new groupings which will automatically be included in the export if the relevant data is available, developers can now expand upon the User profile data grouping through the use of the new wp_privacy_additional_user_data filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output..

// Privacy Filter for adding additional user meta to personal data exports.
function my_custom_additional_user_profile_data( $additional_profile_data, $user, $reserved_names ) {
	return array(
		array(
			'name'  => __( 'Data one', 'a-plugin' ),
			'value' => 'one',
		),
		array(
			'name'  => __( 'Data two', 'a-plugin' ),
			'value' => 'two',
		),
		array(
			'name'  => __( 'Data three', 'a-plugin' ),
			'value' => 'three',
		),
		array(
			'name'  => __( 'Data four', 'a-plugin' ),
			'value' => 'four',
		),
	);
}
add_filter( 'wp_privacy_additional_user_profile_data', 'my_custom_additional_user_profile_data', 10, 3 );

Note: The $reserved_names array is supplied to the filter to assist developers in avoiding using these names in their array of additional data. This is due to any additional data matching these names will be suppressed from the export to avoid a conflictconflict A conflict occurs when a patch changes code that was modified after the patch was created. These patches are considered stale, and will require a refresh of the changes before it can be applied, or the conflicts will need to be resolved. with the existing user profile data to be exported.

See #47509

Personal Data Exports now include a JSONJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML. file and a Table of Contents

Along with including additional data in the Personal Data Exports the export zip will now contain a JSON file (#49029) of the data for better portability. This JSON file will contain all of the data present in the HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. file with the exception of the table of contents.

The HTML export file has been updated to include a Table of Contents (#46894) for easier navigation of large data exports.

Visual Improvements to the Privacy Tools tables

In WordPress 5.4 the Privacy Tools tables have been updated to give progress indicators (#44264) for both the export and erasure processes. As well as switched the ‘Next Steps’ buttons to links (#49323) for a cleaner interface.

New filters for the headers of all Privacy-related emails

In WordPress 5.4 developers are now able to filter the email headers on privacy related emails. For example, this will enable developers to change the “From” email address. These headers and an example are listed below;

• wp_privacy_personal_data_email_headers
• user_request_action_email_headers
• user_request_confirmed_email_headers
• user_erasure_complete_email_headers

// Privacy filter for setting the From name/email on privacy emails.
function my_privacy_mail_headers( $headers, $subject, $content, $request_id, $email_data ) {
	$headers = array(
		'From: My Name <myname@example.com>',
	);
	return $headers;
}
add_filter( 'wp_privacy_personal_data_email_headers', 'my_privacy_mail_headers', 10, 5 );
add_filter( 'user_request_action_email_headers', 'my_privacy_mail_headers', 10, 5 );
add_filter( 'user_request_confirmed_email_headers', 'my_privacy_mail_headers', 10, 5 );
add_filter( 'user_erasure_complete_email_headers', 'my_privacy_mail_headers', 10, 5 );

See #44501

Renamed Function for Clarity

In WordPress 5.4 the wp_get_user_request_data function was renamed to wp_get_user_request for function clarity. This is due to the function returning the actual WP_User_Request object and not the data parameter which is part of the request object. The old function signature will now produce a _doing_it_wrong warning message.

See #46302

#5-4, #core-privacy, #dev-notes, #privacy