URL: https://docs.adyen.com/development-resources/data-protection-api.md
---
title: "Data Protection API"
description: "Use our API to comply with GDPR's right to erasure mandate."
url: "https://docs.adyen.com/development-resources/data-protection-api"
source_url: "https://docs.adyen.com/development-resources/data-protection-api.md"
canonical: "https://docs.adyen.com/development-resources/data-protection-api"
last_modified: "2023-05-31T19:51:00+02:00"
language: "en"
---
# Data Protection API
Use our API to comply with GDPR's right to erasure mandate.
[View source](/development-resources/data-protection-api.md)
Our Data Protection API allows you to process [Subject Erasure Requests](https://gdpr-info.eu/art-17-gdpr/) as mandated in General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Use our API to submit a request to delete a shopper's data, including payment details and other shopper-related information, for example, delivery address or shopper email.
## Submit a Subject Erasure Request
1. Send a POST `/requestSubjectErasure` request, specifying:
| Parameter | Required | Description |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `merchantAccount` |  | Your merchant account. |
| `pspReference` |  | The PSP reference of the original payment authorisation. We will delete all shopper-related data for this payment. |
| `forceErasure` | | Set this to **true** if you want to delete shopper-related data, even if the shopper has an existing recurring transaction. This only deletes the shopper-related data for the specific payment, but does not cancel the existing recurring transaction. |
```bash
curl https://ca-test.adyen.com/ca/services/DataProtectionService/v1/requestSubjectErasure \
-H 'x-api-key: ADYEN_API_KEY' \
-H 'content-type: application/json' \
-d '{
"merchantAccount":"YOUR_MERCHANT_ACCOUNT",
"pspReference":"9915520502347613",
"forceErasure": true
}'
```
2. In the response, check the `result` value.
```json
{
"result": "SUCCESS"
}
```
Possible `result` values are:
* **SUCCESS**: the request has been received, and will be processed asynchronously.
* **ACTIVE\_RECURRING\_TOKEN\_EXISTS**: data cannot be deleted because a recurring transaction is associated with the shopper's payment details. If you want to proceed with deleting shopper data, include `forceErasure`: **true** in your request.
* **PAYMENT\_NOT\_FOUND**: the PSP reference doesn't exist.
* **ALREADY\_PROCESSED**: we have already received a request for the same PSP reference.
After we receive your request, we will delete transaction data in accordance with the Merchant Agreement and redact shopper-related data from the [Customer Area](https://ca-test.adyen.com/).
3. Optional. To verify that the data has been redacted, check the payment in your [Customer Area](https://ca-test.adyen.com/). The shopper data fields are shown as *REDACTED*, and the redaction date is shown in the **Data Protection** section.
To switch to live, change the domain to `ca-live.adyen.com`.
