Data engineering·Governance, privacy and meaning
the analyst sees the email column as four asterisks and an at sign, while the support tool sees the real thing, from the same table.
Data masking
Also calleddynamic masking, redaction
Obscuring values at read time based on who is asking, so one table can serve different audiences. It is convenient and it is a control at the query layer, which means it protects nothing against someone with access to the underlying files. Treat it as a way to reduce casual exposure among people who already have legitimate access, not as a boundary against someone determined.