Synthetic data and privacy
Why fully synthetic data protects privacy, and how to keep it that way.
Synthetic data protects privacy only when it isn’t derived from real people. DataGenStudio generates fully synthetic data: values are invented from your schema, not learned from or copied out of real records.
Three ways to make test data
| Approach | How it works | Privacy risk |
|---|---|---|
| Masked or anonymized production data | Real records with names, IDs and other fields scrambled or removed | High. Each row is still a real person. Combinations of remaining fields (birth date, postcode, gender) can re-identify them. |
| Model-trained synthetic data | A model learns from real records, then samples new rows that mimic them | Medium. Rows are new, but a model can memorise and reproduce rare records. Needs privacy testing before release. |
| Fully synthetic data (DataGenStudio) | Values are invented from your schema, column types, ranges and hints | Low. No real record goes in, so none can come out. Nothing links a row to a real person. |
How DataGenStudio keeps data fictional
- Built-in generators create names, addresses, phone numbers, dates and amounts from fictional data sets. They are not drawn from real customers.
- AI-written values (product names, ticket subjects, enum values) come from prompts that forbid real personal data. The AI writes small pools of values once; rows are then assembled from those pools.
- Emails use reserved domains.
example.com,example.netandexample.orgare set aside for testing and can’t receive real email. - Relationships are generated, not copied. Links between tables are built from generated parent keys, so the shape of your real data isn’t reproduced.
Where real data can slip in
Fully synthetic data is only as private as what you put in. Watch these three inputs:
- Sample values. The generator imitates the format of a sample value. If you paste a real customer ID or email as a sample, that real value is sent to the AI. Use an invented example in the right format instead, e.g.
CUST-000042. - Imported files. An imported SQL file or spreadsheet is sent to the AI to read its structure. Upload the schema and, at most, one fake example row. Never a production export.
- AI Chat attachments. Files you attach in AI Chat are stored and sent to the AI. Don’t attach documents that contain real personal or confidential data.
Coincidences aren’t leaks. A generated name like Maria Garcia may match a real person, because common names are common. The row is still fictional: nothing else in it relates to that person.
Limits of synthetic data
Synthetic data is built for testing, development, demos and training. It reproduces formats, ranges and relationships, not the statistical patterns of your real business. Don’t use it to draw conclusions about real customers, or to train models whose accuracy depends on real-world patterns.