Data retention (admin only)

This page is for platform admins. The settings described here live under Admin → Compliance → Data retention and are visible only to the Admin role. Changes are logged to the audit trail and require a second admin to approve.

Default retention periods

Data	Default retention	Configurable range
Active worker profiles	Life of employment	Not configurable
Leaver profiles	24 months after deactivation	6-84 months
Closed resource requests	36 months	12-84 months
Match and search logs	12 months	3-24 months
Audit trail	84 months	Not configurable downward

Set leaver retention with your privacy team, not unilaterally. The default reflects typical DPIA outcomes for UK and EU firms, but your firm’s own assessment governs.

What deletion actually does

When a leaver profile passes retention, personal identifiers are erased and the record is anonymised, not removed. Work-history facts persist in anonymised form so that inferred skills on remaining staff and historical utilisation reporting stay accurate. This distinction matters when answering erasure requests: confirm with your privacy team whether anonymisation satisfies the request, which under UK and EU GDPR it normally does.

Subject access and erasure requests

For a SAR, use Admin → Compliance → Subject export to produce a machine-readable export of everything held on one person, including match-log appearances. For an erasure request on a current employee, escalate to your privacy team first - most data here is processed under legitimate interest for resourcing and is not erasable while employment continues.

Legal hold

Placing a person or a request under legal hold suspends all retention processing for that record until the hold is lifted. Holds override every schedule above and appear in the audit trail. Review active holds quarterly; forgotten holds are the most common finding in retention audits.