Inspect sensitive text by using the DLP API

Inspect sensitive text by using the DLP API

Learn how to scan a sample string for sensitive information by using the Cloud Data Loss Prevention API of Sensitive Data Protection and JSON.

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To follow step-by-step guidance for this task directly in the Google Cloud console, click Guide me:

Guide me

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Before you begin

1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.
2. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

3. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

   gcloud init

4. Create or select a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   • Create a Google Cloud project:

     gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID

     Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.

   • Select the Google Cloud project that you created:

     gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

     Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.

5. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

6. Enable the DLP API:

   gcloud services enable dlp.googleapis.com

7. Grant roles to your user account. Run the following command once for each of the following IAM roles: roles/dlp.user

   gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID --member="user:USER_IDENTIFIER" --role=ROLE

   • Replace PROJECT_ID with your project ID.

   • Replace USER_IDENTIFIER with the identifier for your user account. For example, user:[e-mail].

   • Replace ROLE with each individual role.
8. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

9. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

   gcloud init

10. Create or select a Google Cloud project.

    Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

    • Create a Google Cloud project:

      gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.

    • Select the Google Cloud project that you created:

      gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.

11. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

12. Enable the DLP API:

    gcloud services enable dlp.googleapis.com

13. Grant roles to your user account. Run the following command once for each of the following IAM roles: roles/dlp.user

    gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID --member="user:USER_IDENTIFIER" --role=ROLE

    • Replace PROJECT_ID with your project ID.

    • Replace USER_IDENTIFIER with the identifier for your user account. For example, user:[e-mail].

    • Replace ROLE with each individual role.

Inspect a string for sensitive information

This section shows you how to configure the DLP API to scan sample text using the projects.content.inspect REST method.

This section requires you to save the sample request in a JSON file. If you're using Cloud Shell, you can use the Cloud Shell Editor to create the file. To launch the editor, click Open Editor on the toolbar of the Cloud Shell window.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

• PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project.

HTTP method and URL:

POST https://dlp.googleapis.com/v2/projects/PROJECT_ID/content:inspect

Request JSON body:

{
  "item": {
    "value": "My phone number is [phone]."
  },
  "inspectConfig": {
    "infoTypes": [
      {
        "name": "PHONE_NUMBER"
      },
      {
        "name": "US_TOLLFREE_PHONE_NUMBER"
      }
    ],
    "minLikelihood": "POSSIBLE",
    "limits": {
      "maxFindingsPerItem": 0
    },
    "includeQuote": true
  }
}

To send your request, expand one of these options:

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login , or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named inspect-request.json, and execute the following command:

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "x-goog-user-project: PROJECT_ID" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @inspect-request.json \
     "https://dlp.googleapis.com/v2/projects/PROJECT_ID/content:inspect"

PowerShell (Windows)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named inspect-request.json, and execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred"; "x-goog-user-project" = "PROJECT_ID" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile inspect-request.json `
    -Uri "https://dlp.googleapis.com/v2/projects/PROJECT_ID/content:inspect" | Select-Object -Expand Content

You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:

{
  "result": {
    "findings": [
      {
        "quote": "[phone]",
        "infoType": {
          "name": "US_TOLLFREE_PHONE_NUMBER"
        },
        "likelihood": "LIKELY",
        "location": {
          "byteRange": {
            "start": "19",
            "end": "33"
          },
          "codepointRange": {
            "start": "19",
            "end": "33"
          }
        },
        "createTime": "2022-09-23T01:53:05.303Z",
        "findingId": "2022-09-23T01:53:05.306348Z5328915744504121862"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Clean up

To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used on this page, delete the Google Cloud project with the resources.

Delete the project

If you created a new project for this quickstart, the easiest way to prevent additional charges is to delete the project.

Caution: Deleting a project has the following effects:

• Everything in the project is deleted. If you used an existing project for the tasks in this document, when you delete it, you also delete any other work you've done in the project.
• Custom project IDs are lost. When you created this project, you might have created a custom project ID that you want to use in the future. To preserve the URLs that use the project ID, such as an appspot.com URL, delete selected resources inside the project instead of deleting the whole project.

If you plan to explore multiple architectures, tutorials, or quickstarts, reusing projects can help you avoid exceeding project quota limits.

Delete a Google Cloud project:

gcloud projects delete PROJECT_ID

Revoke your credentials

Optional: Revoke credentials from the gcloud CLI.

gcloud auth revoke

What's next

• To get started with inspecting text and images for sensitive data, see How-to guides.

• To better understand inspection, redaction, infoTypes, and likelihood, see Concepts.

• Learn more about the DLP API.