IBM Business Automation Insights (BAI) uses a configurable mechanism to protect sensitive personal data. This is achieved by defining anonymization or obfuscation rules in a JSON configuration file. These rules are applied by the Apache Flink processing jobs before the data is stored in Elasticsearch. The rules specify which data fields to anonymize and the method to use (e.g., masking, hashing). This process effectively removes the sensitive nature of the data from the stored events, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR.

A. StoredlQ plugin: IBM StoredIQ is a separate product for data governance and eDiscovery, not a native component within Business Automation Insights responsible for data anonymization during event processing.

B. SI Encryption module: Encryption protects data at rest or in transit by making it unreadable without a key. It does not remove or anonymize the sensitive information itself, which is the core of the question.

C. Personal data discovery rules: These rules would be for identifying or classifying personal data. The actual process of removing or masking the identified data is handled by the anonymization rules.

1. IBM Documentation for IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation. "Protecting personal data." This official document details the process of configuring Business Automation Insights to obfuscate sensitive data. It states

"You configure obfuscation by providing a JSON configuration with obfuscation rules... The Flink jobs that process events apply the obfuscation rules before storing the resulting data in Elasticsearch." This directly supports that anonymization (obfuscation) rules are the responsible component. (IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation > Administering > Administering Business Automation Insights > Protecting personal data).