Combined Data Privacy release notes for upgrades from Zurich to Australia

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated August 11, 2026
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Combined Data Privacy Release Notes for Upgrades from Zurich to Australia

    This consolidated release notes page assists ServiceNow customers in preparing for upgrades of Data Privacy capabilities from the Zurich release family to the Australia release family. It outlines new features, changes, and important upgrade information spanning both releases, enabling customers to understand enhancements and plan their upgrade activities effectively.

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    Key Features

    • New Features Introduced between Zurich and Australia:
      • Zurich:
        • New Data Discovery experience with simplified workflows for discovering and anonymizing Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
        • Column-level discovery allowing granular scanning of specific table columns.
        • Anonymization support for encrypted fields enhancing compliance and data protection.
      • Australia:
        • Real-time alerting and blocking of sensitive data entered by users at the field level, with optional blocking of save actions.
        • Data logs capturing details of sensitive data entry events for audit and investigation.
        • Real-time scanning and quarantining of attachments uploaded with sensitive data, restricting access until admin review.
        • New AI/ML-based Named Entity Recognition (NER) model patterns for detecting sensitive information such as addresses, job positions, and salaries.
        • Anonymization support extended to catalog variables, including record producers.
        • New base system Regular Expression (RegEx) patterns aligned with global compliance needs.
        • Enhanced anonymization reporting via a dashboard that provides quantitative insights for auditors and compliance teams.
    • Changes to Existing Features:
      • Zurich:
        • Data Discovery jobs now support full scans across all records and incremental delta scans.
        • Attachment scan type jobs extended to support XLS and CSV files.
        • Introduction of text-to-regex pattern creation using Now Assist with support for ServiceNow-approved large language models (LLMs).
        • Improved keyword matching using full strings for more precise sensitive data detection, requiring potential adjustment of keyword variants by customers.
      • Australia:
        • Optional condition filters added for fine-tuning anonymization job scopes.
        • A specific anonymization policy introduced for catalog variables to handle sensitive data in catalog requests.
        • Continuation of enhanced keyword matching precision as introduced in Zurich.
    • Activation and Plugin Information:
      • Data Privacy functionality requires activation of the sndpstoreapp plugin in both Zurich and Australia releases.

    Important Upgrade Considerations

    • Review and complete pre- and post-upgrade Data Privacy tasks to ensure smooth transition.
    • No features were removed or deprecated in these releases for Data Privacy.
    • No changes were made to additional requirements, browser support, accessibility, or localization between Zurich and Australia.

    Key Outcomes for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enhanced capability to discover, monitor, and anonymize sensitive data with greater precision and flexibility.
    • Improved compliance and data protection through real-time scanning, alerting, and blocking of sensitive data inputs and attachments.
    • Advanced AI/ML models and refined regex patterns boost sensitive data detection aligned with global regulations.
    • Detailed anonymization reporting supports defensible compliance and provides actionable insights for governance teams.
    • Ability to tailor anonymization scopes and policies to specific business needs, including catalog variables.
    • Streamlined activation process via the Data Privacy plugin enables quick access to these capabilities.

    Consolidated page of all release notes for Data Privacy from Zurich to Australia.

    How to use this page

    To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family Data Privacy release notes onto one page. Read this summary of the new features, changes, and updated information for your product from Zurich to Australia.

    Tip:
    If there were no updates for a release notes section in a certain family release, we included a short note for your reference. For example, if a product did not have any updates in Tokyo, the row says "No updates for this release."

    Important information for upgrading Data Privacy to Australia

    Before you upgrade to Australia, review these pre- and post-upgrade tasks and complete the tasks as needed.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    New features

    Between your current release family and Australia, new features were introduced for Data Privacy.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich
    New Data Discovery experience
    Use the new Data Discovery experience, which simplifies the experience of discovering and anonymizing PII.
    Column-level discovery
    Select a specific column of a table for granular scanning during data discovery jobs.
    Anonymization of encrypted field
    Anonymize encrypted columns to help you achieve compliance with data privacy regulations and defense-in-depth data protection.

    Australia
    Real-time alerting and blocking of sensitive data
    Analyze user input in real time at the field level to identify sensitive data and alert users about potential sensitive data entry. You can also choose to block users from saving this information.
    Data logs for real-time sensitive data
    Leverage real-time alerting and blocking capabilities to obtain insights into where sensitive data is being entered into the instance and by which users.
    Real-time sensitive data-scanning for attachments
    Scan attachments for sensitive data during user uploads into fields. If sensitive data is detected, the attachment is quarantined. This restricts the access and download of the file to the original document owner and authorized users until the admin reviews the files.
    New Named Entity Recognition (NER) model data patterns
    Employ new AI/ML-based model data patterns (Address, City, State, Country, Job Position, and Salary) to detect and anonymize sensitive data.
    Anonymization support for catalog variables
    Anonymize sensitive data in catalog items (including record producers) using anonymization jobs (in production and during cloning).
    New base system Regular Expression (RegEx) data patterns
    Employ new base system regular expression data patterns to detect and anonymize sensitive data in line with global compliance requirements.
    Enhanced anonymization reporting
    Demonstrate defensible compliance to regulators, auditors and internal teams using the new anonymization dashboard to provide quantitative insights into anonymization and data protection operations.

    Changes

    Between your current release family and Australia, some changes were made to existing Data Privacy features.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich
    Full scan support added
    Data Discovery jobs support full type scans, which scan for sensitive data patterns in all the records. You can also use an incremental scan, which acts as a delta scan from the point of the last full scan.
    XLS and CSV support added
    Data Discovery attachment scan type jobs now support XLS and CSV files. Attachment scans are incremental scans by default.
    Text to Regex from a LLM
    Create a regex data pattern with the help of Now Assist, which supports all third-party LLMs approved by ServiceNow.
    Key word matching
    As part of key word matching when discovering sensitive data using regex, more precise data pattern matching has been implemented, using full strings of text. This may require customers to add more specific variants of keywords to achieve the same level of discovery precision as prior platform releases

    Australia
    New experience
    Key word matching
    As part of key word matching when discovering sensitive data using regex, more precise data pattern matching has been implemented, using full strings of text. This may require customers to add more specific variants of keywords to achieve the same level of discovery precision as prior platform releases

    Removed

    Between your current release family and Australia, some Data Privacy features or functionality were removed.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    Deprecations

    Between your current release family and Australia, some Data Privacy features or functionality were deprecated.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    Activation information

    Review information on how to activate Data Privacy.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    Data Privacy is available with activation of the Data Privacy plugin (sn_dp_store_app). For details, see Activate data privacy.

    Australia

    Data Privacy is available with activation of the Data Privacy plugin (sn_dp_store_app). For details, see Activate data privacy.

    Additional requirements

    If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for Data Privacy we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    Browser requirements

    If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for Data Privacy we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    Accessibility information

    Review details on accessibility information for Data Privacy, such as specific requirements or compliance levels.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    Localization information

    If there are specific localization considerations for Data Privacy we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Australia

    		 No updates for this release.

    Highlight information

    If there are specific highlight considerations for Data Privacy we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich
    • Use a revamped Data Discovery interface, enhancing your Data Discovery experience with intuitive widgets, a streamlined user experience, and a guided setup for first-time users.
    • Target scans on specific table columns for discovery using column-level discovery and expanded support for Field Encryption.
    • Discover PII in Microsoft Excel and CSV files with expanded file support.
    • Generate regex patterns using prompts with the text-to-regex feature, which leverages Now Assist and supports all large language models (LLMs) approved by ServiceNow.

    See Platform Privacy for more information.

    Australia
    • Discover and block sensitive data from user inputs to prevent it from entering the platform, alert users when sensitive data is entered to raise awareness, and leverage sensitive data logs to understand where and who is entering sensitive data.
    • Scan and quarantine attachments that contain sensitive data to restrict their access and downloading.
    • Define conditions for the anonymization of sensitive data to meet business specific requirements. Use the enhanced data anonymization dashboard to obtain insights and metrics about data protection and anonymization for executive reporting.

    See Data Privacy for more information.