> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.mediarithmics.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.mediarithmics.io/setup-and-monitor/plan-and-integrate/set-up-the-environment/set-up-compartments.md).

# Compartments

Keep accounts and profiles coming from different registration systems separate on the same user.

## Your goal

Declare one compartment per registration system that gives you user accounts or user profiles, so that a single user can carry an account and a profile from each of your systems without them overwriting one another.

## Expected outcome

Every registration system in scope has a compartment, and you know its ID - because a UserAccount identifier is only meaningful together with the compartment it belongs to.

## What a compartment is

A **compartment** represents a place where you have accounts and profiles. A UserPoint can have multiple user accounts and user profiles on the same datamart - for example a profile on one of your sites and another profile on another site - and compartments are the notion created to represent those different places.

Compartments matter when you aggregate data from different systems and want to keep [UserProfile and UserAccount](/setup-and-monitor/understand-mediarithmics/how-mediarithmics-works.md#information-attached-to-a-userpoint) data compartmented. If you have a website A and a website B, you can have a compartment for each; a single [UserPoint](/setup-and-monitor/understand-mediarithmics/how-mediarithmics-works.md#how-your-data-is-modelled-the-userpoint) can then carry a UserProfile and a UserAccount for website A, and a UserProfile and a UserAccount for website B.

Compartments are also part of the identifier itself: a **UserAccount ID** is composed of a character string and a compartment ID representing the registration system it came from. See [User Account](/setup-and-monitor/collect-and-manage-your-data/design-your-data-model-and-schema/user-identity/user-identifiers/user-account.md).

{% hint style="info" %}
There is always **one default compartment** on a datamart, and you can create more of them. A single-system integration can run on the default compartment alone.
{% endhint %}

Compartments appear in two places in the settings, because a compartment is **created on the organisation and then enabled per datamart**:

| Task                                                                  | Where                                      |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| Create a first-party compartment, or subscribe to a shared one        | **Settings > Organisation > Compartments** |
| Manage the compartments of a datamart, and enable a compartment on it | **Settings > Datamart > Compartments**     |

Compartments come in two categories:

* **First-party user account compartments** hold user account identifiers created inside your organisation, such as CRM identifiers.
* **Shared user account compartments** hold user account identifiers shared from another organisation - including network identifiers such as UTIQ martechpass.

## Decide your compartments

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

### List the systems that identify your users

A CRM, a loyalty programme, an authentication system, a site-specific account base - each registration system that produces account IDs or profile records is a candidate compartment.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Decide what must stay separate

Create a compartment per system whose accounts and profiles must remain distinguishable on the same user. If two systems share the same account namespace and the same meaning, they can share a compartment.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Create the compartments

Go to **Settings > Organisation > Compartments**, and in the **First-party user account compartments** section create a new compartment with:

| Parameter | What it is                                                           |
| --------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Name**  | The name of the compartment.                                         |
| **Token** | A technical identifier used to link the compartment with the JS tag. |

Record each compartment ID: your imports, your tag calls, and your API calls will reference it alongside the account identifier.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Activate them on your datamarts

* **With a single datamart**, the compartment is activated automatically.
* **With several datamarts**, activate it on each one: go to **Settings > Datamart > Compartments**, select the compartment, open the **More** menu, choose **Edit linked datamarts**, and select the datamart.

For a compartment created at community level, activate it across organisations by selecting **Enable Compartment** in the **Shared user account compartments enabled** section.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Attach processing activities where needed

Compartments can carry a privacy wall in the same way channels can - see below.
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

## Attaching a processing activity to a compartment

To activate the privacy wall on a compartment, go to **Settings > Datamart > Compartments** and edit the compartment. In the **User Choices - Privacy Wall** section, add the processing activity or activities that justify the capture of personal data, then save.

From that moment, for a new or existing user, when saving a user profile related to the compartment the platform automatically checks the user's choices. If the choices are not compatible, the user profile is dropped.

{% hint style="danger" %}
Make sure you already have valid user choices in your datamart - or `$set_user_choice` events in your user activities - **before** enforcing this configuration. Dropped data cannot be recovered.
{% endhint %}

## Compartments and user-based network IDs

Compartments are not only for your own systems. Integrating a **user-based network ID** follows the same shape as integrating a device-based one, with a compartment in place of a device registry:

1. Create a new compartment, or subscribe to an existing one.
2. Activate it on the datamarts concerned - only necessary when your environment has several datamarts.
3. Activate its ingestion on your channels.

See [Network IDs](/setup-and-monitor/collect-and-manage-your-data/design-your-data-model-and-schema/user-identity/network-ids.md).

## Verify

* Each registration system in scope has a compartment, or you have decided deliberately that it shares one.
* You have recorded the compartment IDs your imports and API calls will use.
* If you enforce a privacy wall, valid user choices already exist in the datamart.

## Related pages

<table data-view="cards" data-search="false"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Channels</strong></td><td>The equivalent decision for sites and apps.</td><td><a href="/setup-and-monitor/plan-and-integrate/set-up-the-environment/set-up-channels.md">Channels</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>User Account</strong></td><td>How the compartment forms part of the account identifier.</td><td><a href="/setup-and-monitor/collect-and-manage-your-data/design-your-data-model-and-schema/user-identity/user-identifiers/user-account.md">User Account</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Device registries</strong></td><td>The device-side equivalent of a compartment.</td><td><a href="/setup-and-monitor/plan-and-integrate/set-up-the-environment/set-up-device-registries.md">Device registries</a></td></tr></tbody></table>


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