Access Packages

An access package is the set of results an access request returns to the data subject. With access package review enabled, Astralis holds every completed access request for a human review before anything is delivered: a reviewer browses the packaged results in the Request Manager, redacts any fields that shouldn't be disclosed, and approves the package. Only then does Astralis build the final package, upload it to storage, and notify the subject.

This closes the gap between "the automation collected the right data" and "everything in this package is safe to hand to the subject"; third-party personal data, privileged material, or internal values that automated collection can't judge get a human decision before disclosure.

Access package review applies to requests whose policy contains access rules. Erasure-only requests have nothing to deliver, so they are unaffected by this feature.

Enable access packages

Access package review is turned on at deploy time with an environment variable, set on both the Astralis webserver and its workers:

FIDESPLUS__ACCESS_PACKAGE__ENABLED=true

This setting must be present in the deployment's environment and cannot be changed through the config API. Once enabled, every access request pauses for review; there is no per-request or per-policy opt-out.

Review a package

When an access request finishes collecting results, it moves to the Awaiting Access Review status instead of uploading:

The Request Manager listing access requests in the Awaiting Access Review status

Open the request from the Request Manager and the Access package tab opens automatically on its details page.

The Access package tab on a privacy request awaiting review, with results grouped by data use, field and redaction counts, a search box, and the Export, Preview, and Approve & continue buttons

The tab presents everything the subject would receive:

Results grouped by data use. Each section lists its fields with their values and the system each value came from, paginated for large packages.
Field and redaction counts. A running total of fields in the package and how many you've redacted so far.
Search. The search box matches field names and values across the entire package — useful for finding every occurrence of a specific value regardless of which system returned it. Search results are redactable in place, just like the section tables.
Export downloads the full package contents as NDJSON, which stays practical for very large packages.
Preview downloads the package as it currently stands — a ZIP containing the same report the subject would receive, with any redactions already applied.

Search results for a value across the access package, listing every field that matches with its value, category, and source system

The Access package tab is only active while the request is in the Awaiting Access Review status. Once a package is approved, its contents and redactions are final and can no longer be edited.

Redact fields

Every field in the package is included by default. To redact one, uncheck its row — in a data use section or in search results. The value is immediately replaced with a Redacted tag in the review table, and with the literal text [REDACTED] in the delivered package. Astralis stops sending the underlying value to the reviewer's browser as soon as the redaction is saved.

The Access package tab with several fields unchecked, each showing a red Redacted tag in place of its value, and the redactions count reflecting the redacted fields

Two behaviors are worth knowing:

Redactions fan out across sources. Redacting a field redacts every source's copy of that value, so an identical value arriving from another system can't slip into the package unredacted.
Search still finds redacted fields. Searching by the original value locates rows you've already redacted (displayed as redacted), so you can revisit a redaction without remembering where it was.

To undo a redaction, check the row again. Astralis re-fetches the value, since the browser no longer has it.

Every redaction is recorded in the request's activity timeline with the acting user, alongside the eventual approval, so the review itself is auditable.

Access package redaction is manual and per-request, and it redacts field values. To automatically mask dataset, collection, and field names in every DSR report, use redaction patterns. The two features are complementary.

Approve and deliver

When the review is done, click Approve & continue. Astralis resumes the request: it builds the final package with your redactions applied, uploads it to the configured storage destination, and emails the data subject a link to download their results. From there the request completes exactly as it would without review enabled.

To verify the delivery, confirm the request has moved to the Complete status in the Request Manager, and open the request's Activity tab to review the recorded redaction and approval entries.

Configure the source column

By default the review tables show which system each value came from. You can hide the source column in the Access packages section under Settings → DSR configuration.

The Access packages section of the privacy request settings, with the Show source column toggle

With the source column hidden, duplicate values arriving from different systems collapse into a single reviewable row — a cleaner view when many integrations return the same values. Redactions fan out across sources either way, so hiding the column never changes what a redaction covers.

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