Data Retention

The practice and policies governing how long personal data is kept before deletion or anonymization. Privacy laws require that data be retained no longer than necessary for the purposes for which it was collected. Data retention involves identifying retention periods for different data categories, implementing technical and organizational measures to enforce retention limits, documenting retention decisions and rationales, regularly reviewing and deleting data that exceeds retention periods, and balancing privacy principles against legal obligations to retain certain records. Retention periods should consider business needs, legal requirements, statute of limitations, tax and accounting regulations, industry standards, and contractual obligations. Organizations should document retention schedules, automate deletion where possible, implement procedures for manual review and deletion, and maintain records of data destruction. Excessive retention increases breach risk, storage costs, and privacy obligations.