# Anonymize doesn't remove custom fields
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymize-doesnt-remove-custom-fields/94818
**Category:** Bug
**Created:** [August 15, 2018, 9:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymize-doesnt-remove-custom-fields/94818 "2018-08-15T21:06:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Silvanus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Silvanus)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2018, 9:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymize-doesnt-remove-custom-fields/94818/1 "2018-08-15T21:06:26Z")
Anonymize doesn’t remove custom fields that have been added to profile.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2018, 11:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymize-doesnt-remove-custom-fields/94818/2 "2018-08-15T23:54:39Z")
What are your thoughts on this @gerhard?
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### Author:  [@Silvanus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Silvanus)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2018, 5:38am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymize-doesnt-remove-custom-fields/94818/3 "2018-08-16T05:38:26Z")
The field has been added manually. Below a screenshot from customizer and the anonymized profile. (Normal Finnish locale.)
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### Author:  [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2018, 7:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymize-doesnt-remove-custom-fields/94818/4 "2018-08-16T07:33:19Z")
I guess it’s a good idea to always remove those values. We should assume that they contain some kind of identifying information.
Adding it to my list.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2018, 10:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymize-doesnt-remove-custom-fields/94818/5 "2018-08-16T10:04:35Z")
Shouldn’t plugins implement an “on anoymize” for cases like this, maybe they store stuff that needs to go away in plugin store or a custom table.
Also, some custom fields may be private, do we want to anonymize them?
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### Author:  [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2018, 10:18am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymize-doesnt-remove-custom-fields/94818/6 "2018-08-16T10:18:40Z")
Plugins should handle the `user_anonymized` event, if they need to do some cleanup. I don’t plan on removing them automatically.
But removing values of User Fields defined in `admin/customize/user_fields` makes sense.
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### Author:  [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2018, 10:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymize-doesnt-remove-custom-fields/94818/7 "2018-09-06T22:27:09Z")
Thanks for reporting this issue.
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/797cbf8653f9b8c75e38695d9abc7654a631eea7](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/797cbf8653f9b8c75e38695d9abc7654a631eea7)
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### Author:  [@Silvanus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Silvanus)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2018, 5:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymize-doesnt-remove-custom-fields/94818/8 "2018-09-07T05:13:18Z")
Will there be a fix that goes through alreazy anonymized accounts and removes values?
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### Author:  [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2018, 10:07am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymize-doesnt-remove-custom-fields/94818/9 "2018-09-07T10:07:48Z")
No, there are no plans to remove values from already anonymized accounts.
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### Author:  [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2018, 10:07am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymize-doesnt-remove-custom-fields/94818/10 "2018-09-08T10:07:51Z")
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