Electoral Roll Number
Detects Electoral Roll Number patterns. This pattern is based on a Microsoft Purview built-in sensitive information type. Users already running Purview may prefer to enable the built-in SIT directly, or use this version as a starting point for customisation.
- Type
- regex
- Engine
- universal
- Confidence
- low
- Confidence justification
- Low confidence: pattern is broad and will match many non-identity sequences. Corroborative keywords are essential to achieve acceptable false positive rates.
- Detection quality
- Verified
- Jurisdictions
- uk
- Regulations
- GDPR
- Frameworks
- ISO 27001, ISO 27701
- Data categories
- pii, government-id
- Scope
- narrow
- Risk rating
- 9
- Platform compatibility
- Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Compatible, Netskope: Compatible
Pattern
\b[A-Z]{2,3}\d{1,4}\bCorroborative evidence keywords
electoral roll, electoral register, polling district, ID number, identification, ID card, license, permit, registration, certificate
Proximity: 300 characters
Should match
AB1234— Electoral roll with 2 letters and 4 digitsXYZ12— Electoral roll with 3 letters and 2 digitsCD1— Electoral roll with 2 letters and 1 digit
Should not match
A1234— Only one letterABCD1234— Four letters (too many)
Known false positives
- Short alphanumeric sequences (2-3 letters + 1-4 digits) are extremely common across many contexts including postcodes, product codes, and abbreviations. Mitigation: This pattern has a very high false positive rate. Always require corroborative evidence keywords such as "electoral roll" or "electoral register" within the proximity window.
- In multiple languages, similar terminology used in formal or administrative contexts (education, professional documentation) that does not constitute sensitive data collection. Mitigation: Layer with additional contextual signals such as structured identifiers, form fields, or database column headers to distinguish sensitive records from general references.