Deleting personal data from Amazon SES - Amazon Simple Email Service
Delete Suppressed AddressesDelete Data About Sent EmailDelete Data About IdentitiesDelete Sender Authentication DataDelete Data Related to Receiving RulesDelete Data Related to IP Address FiltersDelete Data in Email TemplatesDelete Data in Custom Verification Email TemplatesDelete All Data by Closing Your AWS Account

Deleting personal data from Amazon SES

Depending on how you use it, Amazon SES might store certain data that could be considered personal. For example, in order to send email using Amazon SES, you must provide at least one verified identity (an email address or a domain). You can use the Amazon SES console or the Amazon SES API to permanently delete this personal data.

This chapter provides procedures for deleting various types of data that might be considered personal.

Delete Email Addresses From the Account-Level Suppression List

Amazon SES includes an optional account-level suppression list. When you enable this feature, email addresses are automatically added to a suppression list when they result in a bounce or complaint. Email addresses remain on this list until you delete them. For more information about the account-level suppression list, see Using the Amazon SES account-level suppression list.

You can remove email addresses from the account-level suppression list by using the DeleteSuppressedDestination operation in the Amazon SES API v2. This section includes a procedure for deleting email addresses by using the AWS CLI. For more information about installing and configuring the AWS CLI, see the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

To remove an address from the account-level suppression list by using the AWS CLI

  • At the command line, enter the following command:

    aws sesv2 delete-suppressed-destination --email-address recipient@example.com

    In the preceding command, replace recipient@example.com with the email address that you want to remove from the account-level suppression list.

Delete Data About Email Sent Using Amazon SES

When you use Amazon SES to send an email, you can send information about that email to other AWS services. For example, you can send information about email events (such as deliveries, opens, and clicks) to Firehose. This event data typically contains your email address and the IP address the email was sent from. It also contains the email addresses of all the recipients the email was sent to.

You can use Firehose to stream email event data to several destinations—including Amazon Simple Storage Service, Amazon OpenSearch Service, and Amazon Redshift. To remove this data, you should first stop streaming data to Firehose, and then delete the data that has already been streamed. To stop streaming Amazon SES event data to Firehose, you must delete the Firehose event destination.

To remove a Firehose event destination by using the Amazon SES console

  1. Open the Amazon SES console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ses/.

  2. Under Email Sending, choose Configuration Sets.

  3. In the list of configuration sets, choose the configuration set that contains the Firehose event destination.

  4. Next to the Firehose event destination that you want to delete, choose the delete ( Close or cancel icon represented by an X symbol in a circular shape. ) button.

  5. If necessary, remove the data that Firehose wrote to other services. For more information, see Remove Stored Event Data.

You can also use the Amazon SES API to delete event destinations. The following procedure uses the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to interact with the Amazon SES API. You can also interact with the API by using an AWS SDK, or by making HTTP requests directly.

To remove a Firehose event destination by using the AWS CLI

  1. At the command line, type the following command:

    aws sesv2 delete-configuration-set-event-destination --configuration-set-name configSet \
--event-destination-name eventDestination

    In this command, replace configSet with the name of the configuration set that contains the Firehose event destination. Replace eventDestination with the name of the Firehose event destination.

  2. If necessary, remove the data that Firehose wrote to other services. For more information, see Remove Stored Event Data.

Remove Stored Event Data

For more information about deleting information from other AWS services, see the following documents:

You can also use Firehose to stream email data to Splunk, a third-party service that isn't supported by AWS or managed in the AWS Management Console. For more information about removing data from Splunk, consult your system administrator or the documentation on the Splunk website.

Delete Data About Identities

Identities include the email addresses and domains that you use to send email using Amazon SES. In some jurisdictions, email addresses or domains might be considered personally identifiable data.

To delete an identity by using the Amazon SES console

  1. Open the Amazon SES console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ses/.

  2. Under Identity Management, do one of the following:

    • Choose Domains if you want to delete a domain.

    • Choose Email Addresses if you want to delete an email address.

  3. Choose the identity that you want to delete, and then choose Remove.

  4. On the confirmation dialog box, choose Yes, Delete Identity.

You can also use the Amazon SES API to delete identities. The following procedure uses the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to interact with the Amazon SES API. You can also interact with the API by using an AWS SDK, or by making HTTP requests directly.

To delete an identity by using the AWS CLI

  • At the command line, type the following command:

    aws ses delete-identity --identity sender@example.com

    In this command, replace sender@example.com with the identity that you want to delete.

Delete Sender Authentication Data

Sender authentication refers to the process of configuring Amazon SES so that another user can send email on your behalf. To enable sender authorization, you must create a policy, as described in Using sending authorization with Amazon SES. These policies contain identities (which belong to you), in addition to AWS IDs (which are associated with the person or group that sends email on your behalf). You can remove this personal data by modifying or deleting the sender authentication policies. The following procedures show you how to delete these policies.

To delete a sender authentication policy by using the Amazon SES console

  1. Open the Amazon SES console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ses/.

  2. Under Identity Management, do one of the following:

    • Choose Domains if the sender authentication policy you want to delete is associated with a domain.

    • Choose Email Addresses if the sender authentication policy you want to delete is associated with an email address.

  3. Under Identity Policies, choose the policy you want to delete, and then choose Remove Policy.

You can also use the Amazon SES API to delete sender authentication policies. The following procedure uses the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to interact with the Amazon SES API. You can also interact with the API by using an AWS SDK, or by making HTTP requests directly.

To delete a sender authentication policy by using the AWS CLI

  • At the command line, type the following command:

    aws ses delete-identity-policy --identity example.com --policy-name samplePolicy

    In this command, replace example.com with the identity that contains the sender authentication policy. Replace samplePolicy with the name of the sender authentication policy.

Delete Data Related to Receiving Rules

If you use Amazon SES to receive incoming email, you can create receipt rules that are applied to one or more identities (email addresses or domains). These rules determine what Amazon SES does with incoming mail sent to the specified identities.

To delete a receipt rule by using the Amazon SES console

  1. Open the Amazon SES console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ses/.

  2. Under Email Receiving, choose Rule Sets.

  3. If the receipt rule is part of the active rule set, choose View Active Rule Set. Otherwise, choose the rule set that contains the receipt rule that you want to delete.

  4. In the list of receipt rules, choose the rule that you want to delete.

  5. On the Actions menu, choose Delete.

  6. On the confirmation dialog box, choose Delete.

You can also use the Amazon SES API to delete receipt rules. The following procedure uses the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to interact with the Amazon SES API. You can also interact with the API by using an AWS SDK, or by making HTTP requests directly.

To delete a receipt rule by using the AWS CLI

  • At the command line, type the following command:

    aws ses delete-receipt-rule --rule-set myRuleSet --rule-name myReceiptRule

    In this command, replace myRuleSet with the name of the receipt rule set that contains the receipt rule. Replace myReceiptRule with the name of the receipt rule that you want to delete.

Delete Data Related to IP Address Filters

If you use Amazon SES to receive incoming email, you can create filters to explicitly accept or block messages that are sent from specific IP addresses.

To delete an IP address filter by using the Amazon SES console

  1. Open the Amazon SES console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ses/.

  2. Under Email Receiving, choose IP Address Filters.

  3. In the list of IP address filters, choose the filter that you want to remove, and then choose Delete.

You can also use the Amazon SES API to delete IP address filters. The following procedure uses the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to interact with the Amazon SES API. You can also interact with the API by using an AWS SDK, or by making HTTP requests directly.

To delete an IP address filter by using the AWS CLI

  • At the command line, type the following command:

    aws ses delete-receipt-filter --filter-name IPfilter

    In this command, replace IPfilter with the name of the IP address filter you want to delete.

Delete Data in Email Templates

If you use email templates for sending email, it's possible that those templates might contain personal data, depending on how you configured them. For example, you might have added an email address to the template that recipients could contact for more information.

You can only delete email templates by using the Amazon SES API.

To delete an email template by using the AWS CLI

  • At the command line, type the following command:

    aws ses delete-template --template-name sampleTemplate

    In this command, replace sampleTemplate with the name of the email template that you want to delete.

Delete Data in Custom Verification Email Templates

If you use customized templates for verifying new email sending addresses, it's possible that those templates might contain personal data, depending on how you configured them. For example, you might have added an email address to the verification email template that recipients could contact for more information.

You can only delete custom verification email templates by using the Amazon SES API.

To delete a custom verification email template by using the AWS CLI

  • At the command line, type the following command:

    aws ses delete-custom-verification-email-template --template-name verificationEmailTemplate

    In this command, replace verificationEmailTemplate with the name of the custom verification email template that you want to delete.

Delete All Personal Data by Closing Your AWS Account

It's also possible to delete all personal data that's stored in Amazon SES by closing your AWS account. However, this action also deletes all other data—personal or non-personal—that you have stored in every other AWS service.

When you close your AWS account, the data in your AWS account is retained for 90 days. After that retention period, it's deleted permanently and irreversibly.

To close your AWS account

Complete instructions on how to close your AWS account is covered in Close an AWS account.