## 30.8 MySQL Enterprise Data Masking and De-Identification Overview

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 MySQL Enterprise Edition 5.7 and higher includes MySQL Enterprise Data Masking and De-Identification, implemented as a plugin library containing a plugin and several loadable functions. Data masking hides sensitive information by replacing real values with substitutes. MySQL Enterprise Data Masking and De-Identification functions enable masking existing data using several methods such as obfuscation (removing identifying characteristics), generation of formatted random data, and data replacement or substitution.

 For more information, see [Section 6.5, “MySQL Enterprise Data Masking and De-Identification”](data-masking.html).

