Data Retention

Our platform is geared towards helping you get the most out of your data. We are also committed to ensuring the platform is fast and efficient. With both of these in mind we have data retention periods set for:

• Event archiving - the actions that your contacts take on Adestra campaigns (opens, clicks, unsubscribes, etc.)

  Tip: a full list of event types is available in the export manager topic.

• Automated contact removal - a complete removal of a contact from core tables and lists.

  Note: this is an on-demand feature.
• CSV file retention - automatically deletes any CSV files older than 30 days from your file manager.
• SFTP/FTP file retention - automatically removes files older than 30 days from the SFTP/FTP servers.

Event archiving

Archiving event data will help you to better manage compliance with data privacy legislation, such as GDPR. It also allows us to optimise the most relevant and up-to-date data, as well as improve the Adestra platform's responsiveness, functionality and performance.

By default, the retention period will be 24 months. Adestra automatically archives event data outside of this period.

Areas affected by event archiving

The areas that will see some changes are those that use event data, these are:

• Export Manager: but only when used to access data outside your retention period, e.g. a full scheduled export.
• Event Match Filters and SMS Event Filters, that target event dates older than your retention period.
• Contact Profile Events Tab will no longer show archived events.
• Some detailed Campaign Reports such as Link and Heatmap reports will be unavailable for older campaigns where event data has been archived.
• If reporting data is made solely of archived data contact number links next to metrics will be grey and the link removed.

Any area of the platform which does not use event data directly will not be affected. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Campaign Report summaries.
• Account, Workspace and Project aggregate and trend reports.
• Unsubscribe Lists.
• Contacts, core tables, data tables, lists, etc.
• List history.
• Transaction/Purchase history data.

Retrieving archived event data

Adestra will maintain archived event data for at least a year. To access archived data, make a request through your account manager.

Automated contact removal

The platform will automatically remove contacts from the platform if:

• A contact has been in the system for longer than the retention period set on the account, and
• No event data is present against the contact for that period (either because they never had events or all event data has now been archived).

This is a complete removal of that contact from core tables and lists. The only way a removed contact would be added again is via a sign up of some kind.

CSV file retention

To help compliance in line with data privacy legislation, the platform automatically deletes any CSV files older than 30 days from your file manager.

This should not affect your use of the platform, and instead should improve usability by ensuring only files that need to be kept are kept.

SFTP/FTP file retention

Our SFTP/FTP servers are intended only as temporary storage for data integrations to pick up and import to relevant systems. Once imported these files (typically CSVs) are no longer required and can be removed safely. For this reason, files held on our SFTP/FTP servers for more than 30 days will be removed.

This is to:

• Reduce the amount of data that is stored for longer than required.
• Improve security of the platform and our systems.
• Ensure continued compliance with privacy legislation.
• Increase performance and effectiveness of the platform and our systems.