Data retention
Storage limitation is one of the four things a data-protection reviewer will ask about, and it is the one most monitoring products answer with "indefinitely". Here is exactly how long each category of data survives, and how to make it shorter.
- Configurable retention
- Automatic deletion
- Shorter is supported
- Export before you leave
Default retention by data type
| Data | Default retention | Configurable | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screenshots | 30 days, then deleted | Yes | The most sensitive category, and the one that stops being useful fastest |
| Activity and tracked time | Kept while the account is active | On request | Aggregated hours are what reporting and billing are built on |
| Attendance records | Kept until you delete them | On request | Usually a statutory record an employer must retain |
| Leave records and balances | Kept until you delete them | On request | Needed to settle balances and answer year-end disputes |
| Daily work reports | Kept while the account is active | On request | Small, textual, and frequently referenced later |
| Chat messages | Kept while the account is active | On request | Operational rather than a record of employment |
| Audit log | Kept while the account is active | On request | Access history has to outlive the incident it might be needed for |
Setting a shorter period
Our recommendation is to run the shortest retention that answers your actual question, which for most teams is a lot shorter than the default.
- Decide what the data is forIf screenshots exist to settle an occasional dispute, they need to survive as long as a dispute takes to surface — usually a week or two, not a year.
- Set the retention daysTracker settings, screenshot retention. Enter the number of days. The scheduled deletion job picks it up from the next run.
- Write it into the monitoring policyEmployees should be able to read how long their captures survive, and the number in the policy should be the number in the product.
- Review it once a yearRetention that nobody has revisited since rollout is how a small monitoring programme becomes a large data-protection problem.
Leavers, exports and deletion
When an employee leaves
- The account is archived: no sign-in, and the seat stops being billed.
- Attendance, leave and work-report history stays available for payroll and audit.
- Screenshots continue to age out under the normal retention period.
- A full deletion of the employee and their history can be requested at any time.
When you leave
- Export attendance, leave, tracked time and work reports as CSV before closure.
- Ask us to delete the account data after closure.
Retention questions
How long are screenshots kept?
For the number of days you configure. The default is 30 days on cloud plans, and a scheduled job deletes anything older.
How long are attendance and leave records kept?
Until you delete them. These are usually the records an employer is required to retain, so the product does not expire them automatically. You can delete an employee record and its history on request.
What happens when an employee leaves?
The employee is archived: they can no longer sign in and they stop counting towards your billed seats, but their historical attendance and leave records remain available for payroll and audit until you delete them.
What happens to our data if we cancel?
You can export everything before the account closes, and ask us to delete the account data after closure. Nothing is retained to make leaving harder.
Can we delete a single screenshot?
An administrator can delete individual captures. Employees cannot delete their own, because a record they can edit is not a record anyone can rely on.
Can retention be shorter than the default?
Yes, and for many teams it should be. Seven or fourteen days is enough for the purpose most companies actually have, and shorter retention means less sensitive data to protect.
Questions your reviewer has that this page does not answer?
Send them to us. We would rather add the answer here than reply to the same question in six separate emails.
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