Data retention and archiving settings help your organization stay compliant with GDPR and local data protection laws. You control how long case data is kept after archiving, whether archiving happens automatically, and whether multiple approvers are needed before a case is permanently removed.
Only administrators, system technician and user-defined users with access to security settings can view and edit this page.
Setting the Case Retention Period
In Settings > Security, find the Case retention period section.
Set the number of days, months, or years that archived cases should be retained before permanent deletion. The minimum is 2 days and the default is 5 years.
Here's what happens at each stage:
A case is archived and moves to a "pending deletion" state. It's no longer visible in the case overview.
During the retention period, the case can still be restored if needed.
Once the retention period ends, the case's encryption keys are permanently deleted. After this point, the personal data in that case cannot be recovered under any circumstances.
Note that metadata such as tags, departments, and categories may be retained even after the case data is deleted. This allows you to maintain statistics without keeping personal information.
User data, activity logs, and statistics are retained until the end of your contract. If you need these deleted earlier, contact the support team directly.
Automatic Case Archiving
The Automatic case archiving toggle allows cases to be automatically archived after a set period of inactivity. This helps ensure your organization stays compliant with local GDPR requirements without relying on manual action from case handlers.
When enabled, cases that have been open beyond the configured timeframe will be archived automatically and will no longer be accessible to case handlers.
Requiring Multiple Approvers for Archiving
The Require multiple users to approve the archiving of a case toggle adds a four-eyes check to the archiving process. When enabled, you can set the Number of approvals required. This means at least the defined number of authorized users must confirm before a case is archived and moved toward deletion.
This is a meaningful safeguard for organizations that want an additional review step before data is permanently removed.
We’re here to support you. If you have questions reach out to us directly via the Messenger icon in the bottom right corner of your screen, or send us an email at support@whistleblowersoftware.com.