GDPR compliance

KavachOS includes built-in tools for the three GDPR obligations that most commonly require custom code: giving users their data, deleting their account on request, and anonymizing audit trails.

Setup

import { createKavach } from 'kavachos';
import { gdpr } from 'kavachos/plugins/gdpr'; 

const kavach = await createKavach({
  database: { provider: 'postgres', url: process.env.DATABASE_URL! },
  secret: process.env.KAVACH_SECRET!,
  baseUrl: 'https://auth.example.com',
  plugins: [
    gdpr({ 
      requireDeletionConfirmation: true, 
    }), 
  ],
});

Export user data

POST /auth/gdpr/export

Returns a JSON bundle of all data KavachOS holds for the authenticated user: profile, sessions, audit events, and any plugin-specific records.

const res = await fetch('/auth/gdpr/export', {
  method: 'POST',
  credentials: 'include',
});

const { data } = await res.json();
// data.user, data.sessions, data.auditLog, data.agents, ...

The export runs synchronously for small datasets. For accounts with large audit logs, the response includes a downloadUrl that expires after 24 hours instead of embedding the full payload.

Delete account

POST /auth/gdpr/delete

Permanently deletes the user account and all associated data. Sessions are revoked immediately. If requireDeletionConfirmation is true, the user must provide their password (or a confirmation token sent by email):

const res = await fetch('/auth/gdpr/delete', {
  method: 'POST',
  credentials: 'include',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    confirmation: 'DELETE', // literal string
    password: 'correct horse battery', // if requireDeletionConfirmation is true
  }),
});

onBeforeDelete hook

gdpr({
  onBeforeDelete: async (userId) => { 
    await db.delete(posts).where(eq(posts.authorId, userId)); 
    await db.delete(comments).where(eq(comments.userId, userId)); 
  }, 
}),

Anonymize audit log

For cases where you need to retain audit records for compliance but cannot keep personal data, KavachOS can anonymize the audit log for a user without deleting it:

import { anonymizeAuditLog } from 'kavachos/modules/gdpr';

await anonymizeAuditLog(kavach, {
  userId: 'usr_abc123',
  replacement: '[deleted]', // replaces email, name, IP in log entries
});

The audit events remain in place with timestamps and action types intact. Personal identifiers are overwritten with the replacement string.

Configuration reference