When a customer or user formally requests their data, or asks for their account and its associated data to be deleted, WordPress doesn’t hand you a clean, ready answer by default — the relevant information (orders, comments, form submissions, custom fields) is scattered across your database, and assembling or removing it correctly takes deliberate, careful handling.
User data export & deletion request handling
A data export or deletion request handled correctly, with what must legally stay clearly explained.
- Full backup taken before we start
- If we can’t fix it, you get your money back
- We never ask for your own password
What we need from you
- The specific request received (an export, a deletion, or both) and who it’s for
- Confirmation of which data sources are relevant beyond core WordPress (WooCommerce orders, form plugin submissions, custom fields)
- Your retention obligations, if any, that might limit what can actually be deleted (like financial records)
This or something else?
| You’ve received a specific data export or deletion request and need it handled correctly | This fix covers it |
| You want ongoing GDPR tooling set up so users can self-serve these requests | GDPR data export & erasure tooling setup, the proactive version |
| You want to purge spam or clearly fake accounts, not respond to a genuine request | Orphaned user & spam registration purge |
| You’re not sure what data you’re even legally obligated to provide or delete | Worth a broader compliance conversation before proceeding — we can help identify what’s genuinely covered |
What we do
- Identify every data source relevant to the specific user or account
- Compile a complete export if that’s what was requested
- Determine what can be fully deleted versus what must be retained for a legitimate reason (like financial records)
- Execute the deletion or export carefully, verifying completeness
- Document exactly what was done, for your own compliance record
- Confirm no broken references remain where data was removed
What is included
- A complete, verified data export or deletion for the specific request
- Retained records clearly identified and explained, where full deletion isn’t appropriate
- A written record of what was done, for your compliance file
- A check for broken references following any deletion
Not included
- Legal advice on your specific compliance obligations — a separate, professional question
- Setting up ongoing self-service tooling for future requests, a separate fix
- Handling requests as an ongoing service beyond the ones specified
- Retroactively fixing how data was originally collected or stored
Questions about this fix
What if I'm legally required to keep some of this data, like financial records?
We identify anything genuinely subject to a retention requirement and explain clearly what's kept and why, rather than either deleting everything indiscriminately or keeping more than necessary.
How do I know the deletion or export is actually complete?
We check across every relevant data source we've identified together, including things easy to overlook like form submissions or custom fields, and document what was covered.
Can you tell me whether I'm even legally required to honor this request?
We can flag what's commonly understood as a reasonable, good-practice response, but the specific legal obligation is worth confirming with your own advisor, particularly for anything ambiguous.
Will deleting this user's data break anything else on my site?
We check for broken references (like an order left pointing at a deleted customer) as part of this fix, rather than leaving that for you to discover later.
Should I set up self-service tools instead of handling requests manually each time?
If you expect to receive these regularly, that's worth considering as a separate, proactive setup — this fix handles a specific request now, rather than building the ongoing infrastructure.
Related fixes
If this is the second time this year
A bad update breaking the site is a symptom of updates not being tested first. Care plans run every update on a staging clone before it reaches your live site, which is the actual fix for this happening again.
Your access, your rules
Create a separate admin account for us and delete it when we are done. For anything else, we get in touch and agree a method — never a form field on this site, never by reply to an email.
We back up first, always
Before anything is touched we take a full backup and keep it for 30 days. If a fix goes wrong, we put the site back exactly as it was.
If it is not what you bought
If the problem turns out smaller than what you ordered, we refund the difference. If it is bigger, we stop and send a quote before doing any extra work.
If we cannot fix it
You get back what we received. Diagnosis is on us — you only pay when the problem is actually solved. The payment processor takes its fee before the money reaches us, so we never hold it and it is not ours to return. That is true here as everywhere else.
If it comes back
Reply within seven days of delivery and we put it back on the bench at no cost. The fix is not finished until it holds.
What we are responsible for
If something goes wrong with a fix, our responsibility is limited to what you paid for it. We take a full backup first so mistakes can be undone, and we tell you before doing anything outside what you bought.