[sims] Deleting users from SIMS

[synaesthesia]

I can't appear to find a way to delete users from SIMS; in nearly all cases, including those that have never logged on I get "unable to delete, mark this account as inactive instead?"

That isn't satisfactory in a) doesn't comply with GDPR/right of removal and b) leaves us with a crapload of accounts hanging around.

Is this anything known to anyone with any workarounds?

[BFCIT]

Same issue here we have been given the following information:

 

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[TD]In most cases, it is not possible to delete the entire record of a staff member because of the complexity of links to other data within SIMS. In the Spring 2019 release of SIMS we relaxed some of the rules that prevented deletion in previous versions, mainly to cover the scenario where a member of staff has been added to SIMS in preparation for their arrival, but did not eventually join the school. A video demonstration can be found here: https://youtu.be/-kR7C6mSBr8. However, If a staff member has been at the school for any longer periods of time, their references across the database will be large and complex and this recent update is unlikely to help.

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[TD]Solution

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[TD]Where a previous member of staff now wishes to exercise their right to be forgotten in SIMS, if the school has no legal basis to retain this information, then they can delete data where possible, for example contact information, employment information, staff contract etc. At this point it may still not be possible to delete the entire record, in this case we recommend that the school anonymise the record by replacing personal identifiable information with GGDP Forename Redacted as an example. This will therefore mean that this persons record, where links cannot be removed, will no longer identify this person. Currently there are no plans to enhance this process or introduce new routines to improve delete, introduce bulk delete or a process to anonymise in the application. All current and future roadmap headlines are kept up to date on MyAccount: https://myaccount.capita-cs.co.uk/Notifications/SIMS7-Product-Roadmap/

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[BFCIT]

Apparently although i've not tried this yet... Under routines, Staff, Delete staff you are able to remove most staff, but you may find that you actually have to delete most of the data already in the staff record first before running the routine.

[synaesthesia]

Ah, usual head in the sand approach from Capita then, shouldn't be surprised.

Whilst that makes sense for staff members (people recorded as employees in SIMS) though, not so much for users, can't see how they should be so ingrained into anything that deletion is impossible; unless it's that badly coded! cheers

[mavhc]

There's 3 types of information there, 1) login to the system, 2) the fact that staff number 1052 did action x,y,z, and 3) the fact that staff number 1052's name is John Smith.

 

You want to remove the login and user data. Item 1 is security clean. Item 2 is part of a historical record. Item 3 is subject to laws requiring records to be kept, but some info could be deleted.

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

SIMS keeps an audit of everyone who has ever logged in to SIMS (and sometimes a little more information about where they went) which is what prevents them being deleted. If you want to get rid of them you can merge them with an existing staff member's account using a patch.

[synaesthesia]

True but some of this is moot; i.e. users created, never actually even logged into (although SIMS says otherwise), therefore they never did or went anywhere and were not employees so don't have links to anything else. It's broken

Looks like the patch is the only way, rather bodgy but will suffice!

[mavhc]

SIMS: It's broken

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

True but some of this is moot; i.e. users created, never actually even logged into (although SIMS says otherwise), therefore they never did or went anywhere and were not employees so don't have links to anything else. It's broken

 

In SIMS, if you go to 'Focus | System Manager | User Access Log', put the 'From' date back to 1980 and enter the username in the box and hit search. SIMS will then tell you when that username logged in.

[synaesthesia]

Yup done this, and found the users in question having never logged on (a couple never even set foot in the building!) SIMS still refuses to delete them with that as a reason though

[bobsmith]

GDPR is a bit of a non-issue in this case - it won't stop you anonymising their record.