Consider the following scenario where a masking policy is applied on the CREDICARDND column of...

The masking policy defined in the image indicates that if a user has the PI_ANALYTICS role, they will be able to see the last 4 characters of the CREDITCARDNO column data in clear text. Otherwise, they will see ‘MASKED’. Since Snowflake system roles have not been granted any additional roles, they won’t have the PI_ANALYTICS role and therefore cannot view the last 4 characters of credit card numbers.

To apply a masking policy on a column in Snowflake, you need to use the ALTER TABLE … ALTER COLUMN command or the ALTER VIEW command and specify the policy name. For example, to apply the creditcardno_mask policy on the CREDITCARDNO column of the CREDITCARDINFO table, you can use the following command:

ALTER TABLE CREDITCARDINFO ALTER COLUMN CREDITCARDNO SET MASKING POLICY creditcardno_mask;

For more information on how to create and use masking policies in Snowflake, you can refer to the following resources:

CREATE MASKING POLICY: This document explains the syntax and usage of the CREATE MASKING POLICY command, which allows you to create a new masking policy or replace an existing one.

Using Dynamic Data Masking: This guide provides instructions on how to configure and use dynamic data masking in Snowflake, which is a feature that allows you to mask sensitive data based on the execution context of the user.

ALTER MASKING POLICY: This document explains the syntax and usage of the ALTER MASKING POLICY command, which allows you to modify the properties of an existing masking policy.