Data Retention Policy
Last updated: 28 July 2026
28 July 2026 — Audit-log retention on account closure corrected. Audit logs follow the tier-based schedule (measured from each entry's creation date), not the 30-day closure cycle, because the audit-log table is append-only. This aligns this policy with the position already stated in the Privacy Policy ("Audit logs — Retention") and DPA Schedule 2 §9. The consequent retention of the closed organisation record is now disclosed, and organisation membership records are correctly described as removed immediately on closure rather than at 30 days.
7 May 2026 — Backup carve-out aligned with DPA §9 / Schedule 2: encrypted backup retention disclosed (rolling 7-day window, with full purge from backups within 90 days of the deletion instruction).
24 April 2026 — Feedback and cancellation-comment retention disclosed.
This policy explains how long we keep your data, what happens when you delete things, and what happens when you close your account.
Active accounts
While your account is active, your data is retained and available:
| Data type | Retention while active |
|---|---|
| Account information (name, email, organisation) | Retained while account is active |
| ESG facts, questionnaire responses, templates | Retained while account is active |
| Uploaded documents and evidence files | Retained while account is active |
| Audit logs | Depends on subscription tier (see below) |
| Billing records | Retained for the life of the account |
Audit log retention by tier
Audit logs record account actions (logins, data changes, exports, deletions) for security and compliance purposes. Retention periods vary by subscription tier:
| Tier | Audit log retention |
|---|---|
| Starter | 90 days |
| Professional | 1 year |
| Business | 2 years |
When audit logs exceed their retention period, they are excluded from the application and are no longer accessible to users. Expired audit data is periodically purged from the database during scheduled maintenance.
User feedback and cancellation comments
We retain the free-text content you submit via feedback forms (cancellation reasons, NPS scores, in-app micro-feedback) for 730 days (2 years), aligned with the Business-tier audit-log retention window. After expiry, rows are hard-deleted by the weekly scheduled-maintenance cron.
Deleting data within your account
When you delete individual items (facts, documents, questionnaire responses):
- Immediate: The item is soft-deleted and no longer visible or accessible in the application.
- 30-day recovery window: The soft-deleted item is retained in the database in case you need to recover it. Contact support within this period.
- After 30 days: Soft-deleted items become eligible for permanent removal during scheduled maintenance cycles.
Soft-deleted items cannot be accessed via the application but remain in the database during the 30-day window. Contact support@answervault.co.uk if you need to recover a recently deleted item.
Closing your account
When you close your account (from account settings or by requesting deletion):
- Immediate: Your account is marked for deletion. You are logged out and can no longer access the Service. Your name and email address are cleared from your profile straight away, and your organisation membership record is removed.
- 30-day recovery window: Your account and all associated data are retained in a soft-deleted state. During this window, you can contact us to reactivate your account and recover your data.
- After 30 days: Your account and the data listed below become eligible for permanent removal during scheduled maintenance. Once removed, it cannot be recovered:
- Account information
- All ESG data (facts, responses, templates)
- All uploaded documents and evidence files
Audit logs are the exception to the 30-day cycle. Audit-log entries are not removed 30 days after closure. They follow the tier-based retention schedule set out above, measured from the date each entry was created — 90 days, 1 year or 2 years depending on the tier the account was on (any account not on Professional or Business follows the 90-day window) — and are hard-deleted once that period has elapsed.
This is deliberate. The audit-log table is append-only: a database trigger blocks updates and deletions, so account history cannot be rewritten after the fact, including by us. That protection is the same reason the entries cannot be pulled forward into the 30-day deletion. Audit-log entries contain identifiers, timestamps and action metadata only — never passwords, questionnaire response text, or document contents.
Because audit entries are linked to your organisation record, that record is also retained — closed and inaccessible, with your personal details already cleared — until its audit entries have expired, and is then removed during a subsequent maintenance cycle.
Billing records may be retained for up to 7 years as required by UK tax law, even after account deletion.
Subscription cancellation vs. account deletion
- Cancelling your subscription stops future billing but does not delete your account or data. Your account reverts to a limited state at the end of the billing period. Your data remains accessible.
- Deleting your account initiates the permanent deletion process described above.
Data export
Before closing your account, you can export your data using the data export feature in account settings. We recommend doing this before requesting account deletion.
Backups
Our infrastructure provider (Supabase) maintains encrypted database backups for disaster recovery on a rolling 7-day window (point-in-time recovery on paid tiers, per Schedule 2 of the Data Processing Agreement). Deleted data may persist in those backups until the rotation expires that copy, but is not accessible or recoverable through AnswerVault during that window.
Backup carve-out: personal data is purged from backups by natural expiry within a maximum of 90 days from the date of the original deletion instruction (or the default deletion date that follows the 30-day soft-delete recovery window), after which no copies remain. This matches the commitment in DPA clause 9.3.
Contact
Questions about data retention? Contact us at support@answervault.co.uk.