Find out how long a company says it keeps your data
The retention section of a privacy policy says how long personal data is kept and what decides that period: the life of the account, a fixed time, legal obligations or the company's own business needs. Many policies keep some data after deletion, such as backups or records needed for legal reasons. Ask Search+ what the policy says about retention for each kind of data, and read the cited passage.
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Last updated October 2026
How to check data retention with Search+
- Upload the policy and any retention notice
Upload the privacy policy as a PDF or Word document and add any separate retention schedule or product notice the policy links to.
- Ask about each kind of data
Ask about account data, payment records, usage logs and support messages separately. Policies often give different rules for each.
- Ask what happens on deletion
Ask what the company does with data when you close your account or request deletion, and what it says it keeps anyway. Open the citations to read the exceptions.
Questions about data retention
Does this policy state specific retention periods, or only the criteria used to decide them?
What happens to my data after I close my account?
Does the policy say deleted data may remain in backups for a time?
What data does the company say it keeps to meet legal obligations?
Does the policy say it keeps de-identified or aggregated data indefinitely?
What to look for in a retention section
Some policies list periods; many describe criteria, such as "as long as needed to provide the service". Criteria are harder to hold a company to, so note which kind you have.
Retention for payment records, support tickets and analytics data often differs. A single answer may need several passages.
Legal obligations, fraud prevention, disputes and backups are common reasons to keep data after a deletion request.
Data the company treats as de-identified or aggregated may be kept with fewer limits. Check how the policy defines it.
Retention requirements and limits depend on the laws that apply, which differ by country and sector. The policy may have regional sections for this.
Search+ cites the excerpt behind each answer, with the section heading when the policy has one, so retention promises are read in the original words.
Retention wording and what it signals
| Wording you may see | What it usually signals | A follow-up question |
|---|---|---|
| "for as long as necessary to" | Criteria rather than a fixed period | What purposes are listed as the reason? |
| "for ... days after account closure" | A fixed post-closure period | Does it apply to all data or only some? |
| "to comply with our legal obligations" | A legal retention exception | Which data is kept for that reason? |
| "residual copies in backup systems" | Backups kept after deletion | Does the policy say how long backups last? |
| "de-identified or aggregated" | Data kept with fewer limits | How does the policy define de-identified? |
What is data retention in a privacy policy?
Data retention is the part of a privacy policy that describes how long an organization keeps personal information and the criteria or rules it uses to decide when to delete or anonymize it.
Questions about data retention
Can Search+ tell me how long a company keeps my data?
Will it find what is kept after I delete my account?
Can it tell me about backups?
Can I compare retention across several policies?
Is this legal advice on what a company must delete?
Know how long your data stays
Start a workspace, upload the privacy policy, and ask about retention.
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